


and it stoned me

by Kit_Kat21



Category: Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Brother-Sister Relationships, F/M, Fluff, Jon Snow is Not a Targaryen, Lyanna is Not a Stark, Past Jon Snow/Daenerys Targaryen, Secret Relationship
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-28
Updated: 2020-09-06
Packaged: 2021-03-04 11:28:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 35,362
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24968977
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kit_Kat21/pseuds/Kit_Kat21
Summary: “Thank you,” Sansa Stark gave him the smallest smile. “And I’m sorry for ruining your night.”Jon Snow, her brother’s best friend, gave his own small smile. “You didn’t ruin anything. I’ve been wanting to leave for a while so you’ve given me the perfect excuse.”
Relationships: Jon Snow/Sansa Stark
Comments: 509
Kudos: 504





	1. The Wendy's Drive-Thru

…

She didn’t speak until they left the house, the front door closing behind them and the sounds of the party, once again, muffled inside.

“Thank you,” Sansa Stark gave him the smallest smile. “And I’m sorry for ruining your night.”

Jon Snow, her brother’s best friend, gave his own small smile. “You didn’t ruin anything. I’ve been wanting to leave for a while so you’ve given me the perfect excuse.”

Together, they began walking down the house’s long driveway where nearly everyone had parked their cars. Others had parked right on the front yard. One boy was throwing up in the grass and a girl was standing nearby, waiting for him to finish.

Sansa wrinkled her nose and took a step closer to Jon. From the corner of her eye, she could see him form that same small smile.

“What’d you think of your first high school party?” Jon asked. He had wisely parked down the street so it’d be far easier to get his car out and once they reached the end of the driveway, they began down the sidewalk.

Sansa tried to think of any other word than the first one that popped into her head, but in the end, it was the only one she had. “Disappointing.”

“What’d you expect?” His tone wasn’t mocking. He sounded genuinely curious.

Not that she thought Jon Snow would ever be mocking towards her. He had always been nothing, but nice to her – the younger sister of Robb Stark, who had been his best friend since forever.

When Sansa was a freshman, on her first day of high school, she had been in the freshmen wing, struggling with her locker. Her best friend, Jeyne Poole, had attempted it as well, but no matter how carefully each of them spun the dial off the appropriate combination assigned to Sansa on her class schedule, none of them could open it.

“Go on,” Sansa told her. “You can’t be late.”

“What about you?” Jeyne frowned.

“I’ll be right there,” she promised and after hesitating, Jeyne left her and Sansa turned back to her locker, frowning at it.

She refused to go through her entire freshman year, unable to open her locker and having to carry all of her class books with her everywhere she went. She _refused_ to develop back issues.

“Can you get it?”

Sansa spun around and saw Jon Snow standing there. “What are you doing here?” She asked her own question first. The sophomore lockers were in the next wing of the high school and not only that, he may have known her, but he didn’t have to stop. She was just Robb’s freshman sister. 

Jon pointed to a room up the hallway. “Biology. Can you get it?” He asked again.

Looking back to her locker, she sighed heavily. “It’s cursed.”

He smiled a little as he came up next to her. “Not cursed. Just old and difficult. Combination?”

Sansa held up the piece of paper with her schedule on it and Jon looked back and forth between the combination and the lock. After hitting the final number, he then hit it with his fist right above the dial lock and easily popped it open after doing that.

Her smile was instant. “Thank you, thank you!”

Jon just smiled and shrugged like it was nothing.

Sophomore year, Sansa had fifth period lunch and Jeyne had sixth period. Obviously, Sansa had other friends to eat her lunch with, but once leaving the line with her tray in her hands, she stood on the edge of the table, looking for one of them or for _any_ familiar face in the loud and somewhat crowded cafeteria.

She searched for Robb, too, thinking he had lunch this period as well, and he wouldn’t mind if she ate with him and his friends. Robb was a good big brother who never pretended he didn’t know who Sansa was when he saw her in the hallways like she saw some older siblings do.

Suddenly, she felt a hand on her back; light and barely there, but she felt it and it made her jump. She whipped her head around to see that it was Jon with his own lunch tray.

“Theon and Grenn are over here,” Jon said and began walking towards the wall of windows in the cafeteria, guiding Sansa with him.

Sansa exhaled with relief. “Thanks, Jon,” she smiled.

Jon smiled at her, too, and then shrugged like it was nothing.

And now, her junior year, she and Jeyne had been invited to a senior party thrown by Pyp, one of Robb and Jon’s closest friends. Sansa had been so excited. Yes, there had been other parties, but now, she was a junior and this was a party strictly for upperclassmen and she had such high hopes. She wasn’t sure why though. It was nothing more than too-loud music blaring and everyone just standing or sitting around, drinking out of red plastic cups.

And no one had even been dancing to the too-loud music.

It had been boring and everyone was getting too drunk too fast. Grenn had pulled the DD card that night so he was sober and he promised Jeyne that he would get her home safe and sound that night. Jon had also not been drinking – only Cokes – so Sansa knew she was safe with him when he offered to drive her home if she wanted to get out of there.

She wondered how Jon had known she wasn’t having the best time.

“I think I’ve watched too many high school movies,” Sansa finally answered Jon’s question. “I was expecting…” she trailed off, unsure of how to explain herself, and she tilted her head up, looking to the black sky dotted with dozens of white stars.

“Seven minutes in heaven? Spin the bottle?” Jon asked and Sansa smiled because she heard his.

“Could you imagine playing spin the bottle with _Robb_?” Sansa laughed. “He would punch any guy the bottle landed on during my spin.”

“Just because he punched Harry when you were a freshman-”

“There was no _just_ about it, Jon,” she said, again, with laughter and it made Jon smile. “Harry was my first kiss and Robb punched him as soon as he found out! Do you know how many guys have even _looked_ at my lips since Robb did that? Absolutely zero.”

“Want guys to look at your lips?”

“It’d be nice.”

“Just because you – or Robb – don’t see it doesn’t mean that there aren’t guys looking at you.”

Sansa wanted to ask him if he saw guys looking at her – and if so, which guys – but before she could, they reached Jon’s car and he pulled out the keys, hitting the lock button. A lot of kids in their school got cars for their birthdays when they turned sixteen, but Jon hadn’t expected that from his mom and had worked his butt off so he would be able to buy his own car. It seemed like every time Sansa went to the grocery store with her mom, Jon was working, either stocking shelves or bagging groceries.

“Thanks,” she smiled and felt her cheeks turn pink when Jon sweetly opened her door for her.

He just smiled and made sure her feet were both in before he closed it again.

For a teenage boy, the car inside was meticulous. Not like Robb’s with fast food wrappers, random notebooks and textbooks for school and football gear always in the backseat. Jon actually had a Febreze air-freshener clipped to the vent so it smelled like a pine tree and it was obvious he actually vacuumed every rug and crevice and washed the outside.

Jon got in behind the wheel and stuck the key in the ignition. He paid for his own car, gas and helped with the insurance and his mom paid for his satellite radio. Sansa saw that he was listening to The Bridge, the mellow classic rock and ‘70s folk rock station. She smiled a little. For some reason, Jon listening to this radio station made perfect sense. Of all Robb’s friends, Jon always seemed to be the most quiet; the most mellow.

And the nicest. No, not seemed. He _was_ the nicest. She knew it was because Jon was just a nice guy, but she also had to wonder if it had anything to do with her being Robb’s sister.

She could admit to herself that she didn’t really like the idea that Jon was nice to her _only_ because she was Robb’s sister. Was she allowed to hope that maybe Jon thought of her as a friend of his, too?

But did she want him to look at her as a friend? She didn’t even know, to be honest. He had always been so nice to her – seeming to know when she needed help and being right there – could anyone truly blame her if she found herself having a crush grow towards him?

“I have a taste for a Frosty,” Jon said. “You want one? My treat. Or do you just want to head home for the night?”

“A frosty sounds delicious,” Sansa smiled and Jon did, too.

They didn’t talk as Jon drove them to the nearest Wendy’s. Fleetwood Mac was playing and Sansa found herself singing softly along to “You Make Loving Fun”. The quiet between them didn’t bother her, she discovered. Actually, it was extremely comfortable. Sitting in Jon’s front passenger seat was the most comfortable she had felt all night. Her shoulders were relaxed and the pine scent was a relief to her head after the cigarette smoke and beer.

“I’ve been meaning to tell you that I like your hair,” Jon spoke all of a sudden.

Sansa looked at him. “Really?” She lifted a hand to a strand. She and Jeyne had been bored over the summer and decided to experiment. Jeyne dyed her dark hair a rich red color and Sansa had decided to go blonde. Sansa was surprised that she hadn’t completely hated it when she saw it. Honestly, it had grown on her. 

“I always liked the red, but the blonde looks nice, too.”

_Always liked the red_. Sansa felt her cheeks turn pink again. “Thanks, Jon.”

She almost said something stupid about his hair and how much she had always loved the black curls, but she was able to save herself from that embarrassment and swallow the thought down before it fell from her mouth.

At the Wendy’s, there were two other cars in front of them in the drive-thru lane.

“Vanilla?” Jon asked, sitting up a bit in his seat so he could pull the wallet from the back pocket of his jeans.

Sansa nodded, smiling. “I suppose you had a fifty-fifty shot of guessing correctly.”

“True,” Jon agreed. “But you always get vanilla. Even whenever we go to Dairy Queen, you get a vanilla milkshake.”

Sansa blinked at that. Yes, it was true. She loved vanilla. Her siblings _loved_ to tease her for that and how boring that choice was, but Sansa never changed. She loved vanilla and what was wrong with that? If enough people didn’t like vanilla, they wouldn’t even have it a choice.

At the intercom, Jon ordered her a vanilla frosty and got himself a chocolate one and then pulled up, waiting as the cars in front of them paid and got their orders. It was still warm out at night, summer lingering, and Jon reached up, hitting the button that opened the sun roof. Sansa tilted her head up to look to the stars again and now, Van Morrison was playing. “And It Stoned Me” and again, Sansa heard herself singing softly along.

“This is the perfect night,” she commented.

“Is it?”

“Stars in the sky, Van Morrison, vanilla frosty.” She brought her head down and looked to the guy sitting next to her. “And you,” she bravely finished.

Jon didn’t say anything to that and Sansa saw his eyes as he rested them on her. 

“You’re looking at my lips,” she had to point out; just in case he didn’t know he was doing it.

Sansa _really_ hoped Jon knew that he was doing it.

“I am,” he confirmed with a single nod and kept looking at her – her eyes and then her lips before back to her eyes.

She exhaled the softest breath – relieved – and a smile slowly began to spread across her face. When Jon saw her reaction, his entire body seemed to relax and Sansa was the one to lean over the center console and have her lips touch his. It was a light and soft kiss – just her lips touching his – but it was perfect in every way, in Sansa’s opinion.

The party might have been a let-down when she thought of her expectations, but this was everything she had ever wanted when it came to a kiss.

They jumped when a horn suddenly honked from the car behind them and looking forward, they saw that they needed to move up to the front window. Jon looked at her with a smile and she laughed, tucking hair behind her ears. Jon leaned in and gave her one more kiss – quick, but as soft and gentle – before he pulled forward and Sansa settled in her seat with a soft, happy sigh.

She waited for Jon to hand the cashier the money and get his change, taking it as he handed it to her so he could pull forward to the second window for their frostys - quickly so the car behind them didn’t honk again.

“How long have you been looking at my lips?” Sansa had to ask; had to know.

Jon smiled a little, looking at her. It was his cheeks that now looked a little pink. “A long time.”

…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you very much for reading!
> 
> ETA: I also forgot to mention that my old tumblr was deleted and I have a new one if anyone is interested - https://thefanficwriter21.tumblr.com/


	2. Cheese Danishes

…

Jon was sitting at the table, just finishing his cup of coffee when his mom came into the kitchen, already dressed for work in her light blue scrubs.

“Good morning,” Lyanna Snow smiled at him and kissed him on the head. “Did you already eat?” She had to ask because her son was always so good about cleaning up after himself and she wouldn’t know if she didn’t ask. She never had to tell him to put his dishes into the dishwasher or to throw his socks in the hamper.

Jon nodded, swallowing his coffee. “Cheerios.”

“Good boy.” Lyanna took a mug down from the cabinet and poured herself a cup of coffee from the pot Jon had brewed for both of them like he did every other morning. She didn’t know what she’d do without him. They were a team of two and always had been. She looked to the calendar on the refrigerator that both she and Jon meticulously kept up to date as she took the container of half-and-half from inside. “You’re working until six tonight? Any plans after that?”

“I have a chemistry test in a couple of days I need to start studying for,” Jon said and then gulped down the rest of his coffee. He then rinsed the cup out and set it into the dishwasher. “Mr. Cline is going to kill me this year,” he then added before coming to sit back down at the table.

Lyanna only smiled. “You’ll do fine,” she told him as she always did.

Mr. Cline had taught Jon chemistry in his sophomore year – which was a requirement for every student – and now, he also was teaching advanced chemistry to those seniors who opted to take it. Chemistry had never been Jon’s strongest subject; he studying for that class more than any other, but he had chosen to take it this year because her son had plans for himself and he wasn’t giving up on those plans no matter how difficult they might be.

Lyanna Snow was an infusion nurse – working in an infusion office in a building of different doctor’s offices where patients came in and out all day for their intravenous treatments, Lyanna starting IV lines, administering the medications, and monitoring reactions and vital signs. Jon had been just a little boy when he had come to work with her for “Take your child to work” day.

Jon followed Lyanna around as she went from patient to patient, watching as she skillfully inserted the needles into their veins and connected the bags of medicines to the lines that pumped it into their bodies. She would let him take patients’ blood pressure and temperatures and Jon watched as doctors would occasionally come in to check on one of their patient’s progression. Lyanna had worried that Jon would be bored. It was eight hours and sometimes, it could get repetitious, but Jon had stayed at her side all day, watching everything she did.

“Can I be a doctor when I grow up, mama?” Little Jon asked at the end of the day.

Lyanna smiled down at him. “ _Of course_ you can be a doctor, Jon. You can be absolutely anything you want to be.”

Jon had been eight and truth be told, she hadn’t expected Jon to still want to be a doctor years from then. Almost every kid, at one point or another, wanted to be a doctor and she had thought that maybe, it had just been something said that would be forgotten.

But it hadn’t and all of this time later, Jon was still on the trajectory of wanting to become a doctor and he knew that to do that, he would have to have a firm understanding of chemistry under his belt. She liked to think that her son got his determination and hard working ethic from her since she had no idea if his father had been like that or not.

When Jon had been twelve, Lyanna decided to tell him of why he didn’t have his dad in his life. She had hoped twelve was a good age to tell a child that, but was there _really_ a good age for a child to learn that they were a result of a drunken one-night stand and she still couldn’t remember what the man’s name had been?

Jon had thought on that for a moment and Lyanna had been quiet, letting him register what she had finally told him. “Why did you keep me?” Jon had asked then and the question did something to Lyanna’s heart. It grabbed hold of it and squeezed tight until it hurt.

Lyanna supposed it was a logical question to have, but she didn’t like her son wondering that.

“Honestly, I had always wanted to be a mother. It was something I had always imagined for myself and something I wanted so badly. But… I never saw having that with someone. I could never see myself getting married or being with someone I loved enough to have a child with them. And I know that probably doesn’t make sense or it makes me sound incredibly selfish and isn’t fair to you to not have a dad-”

Jon hadn’t said anything to that. He simply leaned in and hugged her and Lyanna closed her eyes, hugging him and kissing his head.

Once Lyanna had her coffee together, she came and sat down across the table from Jon. “I get off about five today so I’ll come home and have something ready for dinner when you get back,” she said. “Have a taste for anything in particular?”

“Whatever you feel like making. I can go for your chicken and rice casserole.”

Lyanna nodded as she took a sip of her coffee. Casseroles as a single working mom were a staple of Jon’s diet; as well as things she could easily throw into a crockpot. “I’ve been meaning to ask you all weekend and have just always let it slip my mind. How was Pyp’s the other night?”

Jon visibly paused at the question and then a smile slowly began to spread across his face.

Lyanna had no idea why he was smiling – something _good_ had obviously happened at Pyp’s – and seeing the smile on her son’s face, it made her smile, too. She tried to guess as to what could have happened, but being an eighteen-year-old boy, it could have been anything, to be honest.

“It was great,” was all Jon said without offering any further detail and his smile only grew.

…

Jon lived with his mom in a nice ranch house on a quiet cul-de-sac.

After kissing her cheek goodbye and both wishing the other to have a good day, Jon gathered his things and headed out to his car parked in the driveway. Sitting in the driver’s seat, before turning on the engine, he looked down to his cell phone. He was tempted to call Sansa or text her – maybe ask her if she needed a ride that morning – but he didn’t. She had Robb and Robb always drove her to school. How would it look if Jon showed up to drive her instead?

“I don’t want to keep it a secret. I really don’t,” Sansa had quickly explained as they sat in a parking spot in the Wendy’s parking lot, their Frosties eaten and the cups thrown away, but neither in a hurry to leave despite Sansa’s curfew fast approaching. “It’s just-”

“Robb,” Jon guessed as to what she wanted to say.

“He can be such a pain in the ass,” Sansa had frowned and Jon broke into a grin before leaning over and kissing her – soft and gentle as all of their previous kisses that evening had been.

“He’s protective of you,” Jon explained as if Sansa needed the inner workings of her older brother’s mind explained to her.

“He’s annoying,” she grumbled.

“That, too.”

“Maybe just for a couple of weeks, would you mind if we kept this just between us?” Sansa asked, looking at him and no one should have looked beautiful underneath fluorescent parking lot lights, the light shining in through the car’s windshield, but Jon had learned a long time ago that Sansa Stark looked beautiful just about any time in under just about any circumstance.

His feelings for Sansa was one of those things that had been around for so long, Jon had just gotten used to. He wasn’t even entirely sure anymore when he had developed feelings towards his best friend’s sister. All he knew was one day, they weren’t there and the next, they were and Jon didn’t spend that much time questioning it because it had just made sense to him.

Robb, Sansa and the rest of the Starks had always been in his life – ever since first grade when he and Robb met on the first day and were seated next to each other because of the alphabet. Something as simple as the alphabet gave him the best friend he could have ever asked for. And with Robb being his best friend, the entire Stark family adopted him. Jon got brothers and a sister and two more parents – which included a dad in Ned Stark.

Sansa was there, of course. She was always right there with the rest of them – oftentimes the voice of reason. “Perhaps skateboarding down the garage roof is the _smartest_ thing to do” or “I don’t think setting off firecrackers during the football game _won’t_ end in your arrest.”

But she was always ready to have fun with the rest of them and help Robb and Jon when they found themselves in a bit of a pinch. Though Sansa would deny it – she was as good as a girl could be, everyone rightfully believed – she did have quite the talent for making her handwriting look like both Catelyn Stark’s and Lyanna’s. No one had to know that though other than Jon, Robb and Sansa.

For whatever reason though, Jon never looked to Sansa as he looked to Arya Stark, Robb and Sansa’s younger sister. Maybe it was because Arya truly was the little sister, younger than Jon enough to never have him think of her as anything other than another sibling. Sansa though was just a year younger and there was something about her. Besides being beautiful, smart and a genuinely kind person, whenever she smiled at him, he always felt warm.

It was a cliché, Jon knew. Falling for his best friend’s sister, but damn if he couldn’t stop himself. Kissing her that night in the Wendy’s drive-thru – or rather, _Sansa_ kissing _him_ – it was as if the moment their lips met, he exhaled a breath that said _finally_.

He completely understood though and agreed with Sansa on keeping it from Robb for a time.

Robb was fiercely protective of Sansa. He always had been. He understood how his sister looked and mix that in with how nice she was, just by existing in the same room, guys panted after her. Harry wasn’t the only guy Robb had punched because of Sansa – though Harry was the only one who Sansa knew about – and Jon wasn’t looking to be meeting his best friend’s fist just yet.

He would have to tell Robb eventually. He _wanted_ to tell Robb – and he hoped Sansa did, too – but for now, keeping things quiet might be the way to go.

As Jon pondered if he should text Sansa or not, his phone beeped and he instantly smiled. It seemed like Sansa had made his mind up for him.

SANSA: My dad went to the bakery bright and early this morning and brought back Danishes. I’m bringing you an extra cheese one. 

JON: A girl after my heart.

SANSA: See you at my locker?

JON: I’ll be there.

He set his phone aside and finally turned on the car. He was instantly greeted with The Band’s “The Weight” on the Sirius and the smile across his face stayed there. He had this wish – and hope – that when he died, and his life played in front of his eyes, it was a montage to this song, Levon Helm’s voice the last thing he heard on this earth.

Hearing this song as soon as he turned on his car was a good sign in Jon’s opinion. The Band, a cheese Danish, and seeing Sansa at her locker? How could it not be a good day?

…

Sansa was at her locker in the junior wing – as promised – with her best friend, Jeyne Poole. How Robb and Jon were, that was how Sansa and Jeyne were, Jon knew. Jeyne was currently holding a stack of index cards and Sansa was answering in French. He didn’t know much about French, but he didn’t doubt that Sansa sounded so natural when speaking it, she could be plopped down in the middle of Paris and no one would know she didn’t actually belong there.

Or maybe he was just being biased.

From the corner of her eye, Sansa saw him coming and she began smiling even as she kept practicing different phrases in the foreign tongue, never missing a beat. Jon was so tempted to lean in and kiss her cheek, but he couldn’t do that in front of Jeyne…

Could he?

Had Sansa told her best friend about what happened that weekend?

Even if Jeyne did know, Jon still couldn’t kiss Sansa’s cheek – or any part of Sansa’s face – in the hallway with dozens of other people around. Word would get back to Robb faster than it would take Jon to finish his Danish.

“Une seule langue n’est jamais suffisante,” Sansa said as she reached into her locker and handed Jon a plastic baggy with the promised cheese Danish.

“You got it,” Jeyne smiled and handed Sansa back the stack of index cards. “Good morning, Jon. I don’t know why you worry,” she the said back to Sansa. “You could actually teach the class rather than Madame Watson.”

“Good morning, Jeyne,” Jon smiled back. He peeled open the baggy and practically shoved his nose into it so he could inhale the pastry goodness.

“She knows it, too. That’s why she has it out for me,” Sansa replied to that.

“You’re slightly paranoid,” Jeyne said. “Only slightly though. Madame Watson hates everyone. I’m pretty sure if you ask, she’ll say she hates me and I’m not even in her class.”

“Someone hates you?” Jon asked as he carefully pulled the Danish out, not even wanting to waste a single crumb on the perfection that this was.

“Hard to believe, but it does happen,” Sansa smiled at him. She turned back to her locker and Jon leaned against the one next to hers, closing his eyes as he took his first bite and chewed. “Good?” She then asked, almost laughing.

Jon only moaned as he continued to chew, savoring it.

He opened his eyes and saw Jeyne whispering in Sansa’s ear. Sansa nodded and covertly pulled a tampon from her locker, handing it to Jeyne. Jon closed his eyes again, pretending he hadn’t seen anything, and he took another bite of Danish. After a moment, he opened his eyes again, Jeyne was gone and it was just him and Sansa.

“I wanted to call you this weekend,” Jon let her know within a second.

“You should have. I was beginning to think that taking a girl for a Frosty and then kissing her is just something you do,” Sansa said and she was smiling, but Jon didn’t find it very funny.

Ignoring everyone else in the hall, he reached a hand out and touched her arm. It was perfectly innocent – at least that’s what Jon was going for – but the instant he touched her, he felt warm.

“You know that’s not something I do,” he said in a quiet voice, his eyes staring into hers.

Sansa didn’t respond right away. Instead, she stared into his eyes and slowly, her body turned more towards him. He was so tempted to lean in and kiss her right then and there. His lips missed hers. He hadn’t touched them since Friday and how did she taste Monday morning? The same as she tasted Friday or somehow different now?

He had to find out for himself. When would he be able to kiss her again and find out?

As if reading his mind, Sansa leaned her head in just a fraction closer. “My free period is third. I’ll be in the music room, practicing, and the music room isn’t anywhere near any class that Robb has. He has no reason to be on the side of the school, so… if you think you might be able to manage it…”

Third period was his German class and fourth period was gym. As a senior, some of his schedule was filled with classes that he necessarily didn’t need. Robb had convinced him and their other friends to sign up for gym so they could spend a semester, playing kickball. Being a little late to gym so he could meet Sansa at the music room and kiss her?

He was a senior. He could be a little late.

“I’ll be there,” he promised and Sansa’s smile did nothing to ease his wanting to kiss her.

He managed to pull back and take another bite of his Danish to distract him. “Are you good at chemistry?” Jon then asked her as Sansa closed her locker and slung her messenger bag strap over her head and across her chest.

“Is that an awful pickup line?” She laughed.

“When I give you an awful pickup line, you’ll know it.” Jon pushed himself from the locker and together, they began heading down the hallway together. “I have a chemistry test in a couple of days and I think I’m already failing it.”

“You’re in advanced chemistry. There’s no way I can help you with advanced chemistry. The most I can do is make you flashcards. I make the best flashcards,” Sansa smiled at that.

Jon smiled, too. “Could you make me some flashcards?”

His question made her smile and she looked so happy that he would ever want _her_ flashcards. And her happiness just made her even more beautiful and how was that fair?

Jon shoved the rest of the Danish into his mouth so he didn’t kiss her right there in the hallway.

…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have been wanting to write a Jonsa High School story for some time, but I have talked myself out of it again and again, worried it would be too much like my WHSFA stories. Due to some encouragement from a few in the comments, I decided to just take a deep breath and go for it and write a story about *after* the first kiss.
> 
> With most of my stories, I like to choose a soundtrack and in this story, it's going to be Van Morrison and The Band. (If you know my stories, you know I'm a _little_ obsessed with the Beatles, but The Band is actually not far behind.
> 
> THANK YOU so much to those who read the first chapter and decided to give the second chapter a shot.


	3. The Music Room

…

Catelyn Stark had all of her children take piano lessons. It was something her mother had done for her children and Catelyn had wanted to do it for her own. Of course, she didn’t expect them to stick with it. She just wanted a couple of years of lessons for them to learn discipline and gain a basic understanding of music – which could be handier than one might think.

And as she expected, as soon as they took enough lessons and suffered through enough recitals, all of her children gave up taking piano lessons. Except for Sansa. Sansa fell absolutely in love with the piano and playing. She took lessons twice a week and performed in the school orchestra and even though she was a junior, she was already looking at various music schools throughout Westeros, wanting to major in music composition. Not the most lucrative career choice, she knew, but it was what she wanted to do. She couldn’t imagine doing anything else.

Sitting at the piano and making music, to Sansa, there was nothing better. Listening to the music that came forth from the specific keys she pressed and the chords she created, there was a beauty and almost a power in it. A world without music wasn’t much of a world at all and people might not have thought of it, but people _needed_ music in their lives. So much of history had music involved; the songs creating the stories from those times. Sansa loved the idea of being a part of something so important to civilization’s very existence.

(She also made sure she did well in all of her classes because she already knew that making a living as a professional piano player was a long shot.)

Third period was free and unlike freshmen and sophomores who had to use it as a study hall, upperclassmen could do what they wished with their free periods with prior approval. Mrs. Sewell, the music teacher, gladly allowed Sansa to use her third period as another practice time. She was a very laid-back teacher and had the music rooms always open for students to come to – whether that to be practice, study, eat their lunches or just hang out. Some would even nap in there – whether instruments were being played or not.

As Sansa sat at the piano, practicing a Bach piece – Sansa absolutely loved playing Bach – there was another girl sitting in the corner, practicing scales on her clarinet, and a group of three boys were sitting on the floor, drinking coffee from Dunkin’ Donuts cups and playing UNO.

She admitted that she wasn’t really concentrating as she usually did, but rather, she was watching the clock on the wall. And as the minutes ticked by, counting down the end of third period, Sansa felt her stomach grow tighter and tighter.

Jon would be here soon. Jon Snow, her brother’s best friend, would be here and he would kiss her. Because that’s what they did now. They kissed one another and yes, there was the whole keeping it a secret from everyone, but that wouldn’t last forever, Sansa already knew. And when the secret was out in the open, she and Jon could kiss one another anywhere in the school they wanted without worrying about who would see.

Sansa still wasn’t entirely sure where her bravery had come from on Friday night. Leaning over and kissing her brother’s best friend just because he had been looking at her lips could have gone so disastrously wrong.

She had always been aware of Jon Snow and his good looks. She also knew that there were many other girls – and boys – who were aware of him. But, there had also been how nice he was; how he never treated any of Robb’s brothers and sisters like the annoying siblings they were probably acting as. A genuinely nice guy who looked like him? Sansa knew that that was a rare combination. From what she had seen of the boys in their school, it always seemed like it was one or the other. _Not_ that there weren’t nice, attractive boys, but _none_ were as good-looking as Jon. Honestly, Sansa wondered where he had come from because boys that looked like him belonged in magazines.

Or maybe she was just being horribly biased because she had such a crush on him.

She didn’t even know she had a crush. Yes, she liked him and liked seeing him and always enjoyed herself when she spent time with him. Okay, those should have all been clear indicators that she had a crush on Jon Snow, Sansa knew, but she also had always reminded herself that Jon was Robb’s best friend. He was _only_ Robb’s best friend and he certainly never indicated he ever looked at her as anything more than Robb’s younger sister.

But on Friday night, sitting in Jon’s car in the Wendy’s drive-thru, it had been just the two of them. That was something that never happened. He had said he liked her blonde hair and he knew she wanted a vanilla Frosty and she had felt so comfortable with him and Sansa looked at him, realizing that she wanted her second kiss in her life to be with Jon Snow.

Sansa still couldn’t quite believe that she had been brave enough to do it and she _really_ couldn’t believe that Jon had kissed her back – and kept wanting to kiss her. Obviously, she wasn’t just his best friend’s younger sister.

Should she ask Jon about that? When wasn’t she just Robb’s sister? When did he start looking at her like he wanted to kiss her? Did it just start on Friday night or was it before that?

These were things she should definitely ask him. Eventually.

Sansa jumped when the bell suddenly rang, signaling the end of third period, and her fingers stumbled on the keys. The others in the music room began gathering their things and heading off to the their next class and Sansa did the same – though, much more slowly. The languages classes were on the second floor, but right above where the music and art classes were. She had French so she wasn’t worried about being late. Jon would take the back staircase, Sansa imagined, and hopefully, he would hurry-

She spun around as soon as she heard the classroom door open and there Jon stood, slightly breathless as if he had bolted from class as soon as the bell rang and ran all of the way here. The image of him racing here to see her made Sansa’s stomach tighten even more and she smiled.

“Did you run here?” She asked though the answer was obvious as he was panting.

“I did,” he nodded quickly, gulping in some air as he crossed to her, still standing at the piano. “Sprinted,” he then added just before he fused his lips to hers.

Sansa immediately sank into the kiss, her arms circling around his neck as Jon’s went around her waist, bringing her body in closer to his. She thought there would be a level of embarrassment. She really didn’t have any experience when it came to kissing or holding a boy or being held by one. She was very much just “going with it” and following what Jon was doing. She didn’t think she was making a fool of herself though. Jon only seemed to be holding her tighter and kissing her harder so however she was kissing him or how tight her arms were, he seemed to like it.

Jon pulled his lips back. “I have to breathe, I’m sorry.”

Sansa smiled and almost laughed. She felt giddy and happy and she very much liked that Jon’s arms remained around her waist. “You didn’t have to sprint here. I’m glad you did, but you didn’t have to do that. You’re no good to me if you stop breathing.”

Jon broke into a grin at that. “Are you kidding? I had to sprint. I haven’t kissed you since Friday and I wasn’t going to just walk here.”

She felt her cheeks warm at that and she leaned in, hugging him. She couldn’t see his face, but she could still hear his smile as Jon hugged her closely to him. “I really was starting to worry,” she then confessed to him in a soft voice. Her nose couldn’t stop from going to the top of his shoulder. He smelled like soap. Fresh and clean soap. “I didn’t hear from you all weekend and I don’t know what I was expecting… I didn’t know if Friday was a fluke.”

“Hey.” Jon pulled back just enough for his face to look to hers. “You think I take a different girl for a Frosty every Friday night and kiss her?”

“Technically, I kissed you first.” Jon just kept looking at her. His face was set and serious. “No, I don’t think you’re like that. I just didn’t… maybe you had spent the weekend thinking of Robb and how I’m his sister.”

“I _was_ thinking about that,” he gave a nod. “But more of thinking how I could go to your house to see you and not Robb without making everyone suspicious?”

Sansa looked into his eyes. Even his eyes and eyelashes were beautiful. He had had a beautiful girlfriend last year – Daenerys. Sansa hadn’t liked her that much from what little time Sansa had spent with her. Jon and Robb and their other friends, when one of them had a girlfriend, that girlfriend naturally hung around the group more. Sansa was not only Robb’s sister, but she was Robb’s friend, too, but when Jon was dating Daenerys and she had been around more, Sansa had found herself hanging out with them less.

She hadn’t really wanted to think of the reason for that at the time, she now admitted.

And Sansa was _not_ the sort to compare herself to other girls – people were always pitting girls against other girls enough without Sansa doing it, too – but she had to wonder if Jon looked at her and thought she was just as (or not as) beautiful as Daenerys.

Knowing Jon though, looks didn’t matter to him. He’d be the only eighteen-year-old male in the whole world who didn’t care about looks and unfortunately, Sansa admitted that she was a seventeen-year-old girl who thought about looks too much.

“Flashcards,” she then heard herself practically blurt out.

“What?”

“You can come to my house to see me because I’m making you flashcards and helping you with your chemistry test.”

Jon began to smile again. “I have to work tonight and then I’m going home for dinner with my mom and then studying. But I can come by tomorrow after school to see you?”

“That would be perfect. I have a piano lesson after school today.”

They smiled at one another and Jon leaned in, kissing her softly. “You have French now?” Slowly, his arms fell from around her and it allowed Sansa to reluctantly take a step away so she could gather her things.

She nodded as she put on her messenger bag and held her sheet music in her arms. “I have a test. Verbal today. Written portion tomorrow. And you have kickball.”

“Yeah,” he laughed. “It’s a hard schedule, being a senior, but someone has to do it.”

They stepped out of the music room together into the hallway, but then stopped. She was going upstairs as he was going in the complete opposite direction of the gymnasium and locker rooms.

“I would fail out if I had your schedule,” Sansa said. “Advanced chemistry, Level 4-Biology, Calculus. Robb is taking Home Ec.”

“I thought you loved Home Ec.”

“I do, but you’re taking Level 4-Biology and Robb is taking Home Ec. so he can make bagel pizzas for a grade. There is an obvious difference in schedules, Jon.”

Jon smiled and shrugged. “Well, if they made becoming a doctor easy, everyone would do it and then I wouldn’t be guaranteed the big bucks later in life.”

Sansa just smiled at that. She knew Jon wasn’t becoming a doctor for the money. Becoming a doctor was so hard and took so long with so much work. There were easier ways to make money. 

“Do you have a study guide?” Sansa suddenly asked. “For your chemistry test. I need it if I’m going to make flashcards.”

Jon looked at her and for half a second, Sansa thought he was going to kiss her. He couldn’t, of course. They were standing out in the hallway with students walking past them and they might not be paying them any attention, but all they needed was one to see and mention it to Robb.

Sansa loved her brother but Robb could be overly dramatic and she just wasn’t in the right mindset to deal with that right now.

Besides, she kind of liked having this secret with Jon. It was something just the two of them knew and shared. It somehow made it feel even more special. She knew they would have to tell Robb soon. She didn’t want this to be a secret forever and she would very much like to kiss Jon in the hallways, but now wouldn’t be the moment.

Jon was still looking at her like he was going to kiss her; like she asking him for his study guide was the best thing a girl had ever asked him. “I’ll get it to you by the end of the day,” he promised her and she smiled. “Good luck on your French test. You don’t need it, but good luck.”

“Thank you,” she smiled softly. “Good luck at kickball.”

“I’m going to need it. Pyp loves to try and throw the ball right at my balls,” Jon laughed.

“Well, be careful. I might want those for myself one day.”

The words fell from Sansa’s mouth without her brain even really registering them at all. She had _no_ idea where they came from. She had never said anything like that to a boy before; had never even though of saying such a thing to a boy before.

But the words had been said and they were now hanging in the air between them. Sansa was waiting for the sprinklers in the ceiling to switch on because surely her face was providing enough heat and smoke to activate them.

Sansa quickly lowered her eyes to the floor. There was no way she could look at him ever again. And, of course, since she had now said it, she was thinking about Jon Snow’s balls and what did she even know about _any_ boy’s balls, let alone his?

She almost prayed for the sprinklers to switch on. It would give her an excuse to run away.

Jon though took a step closer to her and it made her – hesitantly – lift her head to meet his eyes.

“I’ll guard them with my life,” he said in a low, quiet voice and now, she was the one about to kiss him – hallway be damned. “Would it be too obvious if I sat next to you at lunch today?”

Her cheeks were still on fire, but looking into Jon’s eyes and seeing the way he was looking at her, like he couldn’t – or didn’t want to – look anywhere else, her embarrassment was beginning to ebb away. Maybe he liked her bold. Or maybe he liked her talking without a filter. She didn’t know if she would be able to do that again though. She was too aware of it now.

“I’ll save you a seat,” she readily promised.

Jon exhaled a deep breath. “You might kill me, Sansa Stark,” he let her know and then, without saying anything else, he turned and Sansa watched as he walked away down the hallway.

It might be a risk to setting the sprinklers off again as her face, again, went up in temperature, but Sansa couldn’t help herself. She watched Jon walk away in those blue jeans of his and she very much liked what she saw.

…

Sansa's Bach piece

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> THANK YOU!!
> 
> And although, most of the time, I don't even like to admit that S7/S8 exist, earlier, I was thinking of Sansa and what she must have felt, seeing Jon and Daenerys together and I decided to add a little of those feelings into this story.


	4. Promises

…

The English classes had copies of the novels for the students, but if they wanted to underline or highlight – or make markings of any kind on the pages – they were to buy their own copies. Robb always bought his own copy of whatever book was required reading for that semester. Even in the books that he read for enjoyment, Robb underlined any line he read that he liked at that particular moment. He always had – for a reason he didn’t even know.

When his teacher told the class that they would be beginning _Great Expectations_ the next week, Robb knew what he had to do.

Mordane’s was a popular store in Winterfell for how random the place was. It was a used book and record store, a candy shop and a sports store. It was just a hodgepodge of things that the family felt like selling, but if you needed a hockey stick, some licorice and John Denver on vinyl all at the same time, you were in luck. Robb could only imagine how the business loan to the bank looked like when they had to explain the business.

The used books were on the second floor and there was a section with the shelves labeled _School Reading List_ so they would be easy to find. Robb took the stairs to go there now. It was quiet – even if the lot was full, for some reason, the store always seemed quiet – and there was an Ella Fitzgerald song playing at a low volume over the store’s speakers.

Turning the corner, he stopped short when he saw that someone else was in the aisle he needed.

Robb was well aware of how cute Jeyne Poole was, but Robb also never allowed himself to think about it. She was his sister’s best friend and he had known her since she was seven and always coming over to the Stark house. She was Sansa’s best friend and Robb knew he could never look at her as anything else. It was too complicated. What if they went out and then broke up? Sansa’s best friend and Sansa’s brother? Sansa would obviously have to take his side and that wouldn’t be fair to her if she couldn’t be best friends anymore with the best friend she’s had since first grade. No, it would be better to everyone if Robb just admitted that Jeyne Poole was cute – there were plenty of cute girls in their school – and move on without a second thought.

Seeing someone from the corner of her eye, Jeyne turned her head and saw that it was him.

“I can’t believe Sansa reads her for fun,” she frowned.

Robb smiled. That could only mean that Jeyne was reading _The House of Mirth_ this semester. Sansa’s favorite author was Edith Wharton and she had other books, but Edith’s books were the ones with the most cracked spines from being read over and over again.

“I’ve just read the last couple of pages and why do I want to commit my time to this?” Jeyne asked, almost demanding, as if Robb would have any sort of an answer for her.

“Isn’t that cheating?” Robb asked, moving past her to go to the large Dickens section.

“How is it cheating? I’m going to be reading it anyway.” Jeyne sighed heavily and decided on one of the copies on the shelf, flipping it over to see the price on the back. “What about you?”

“ _Great Expectations_ ,” Robb answered, seeing the various editions and copies and choosing one that didn’t seem too beat up; especially since he was going to be marking the Hell out of it.

“Please tell me I won’t have to read Dickens next year,” Jeyne said and she did so with a frown.

It made Robb grin. Jeyne was also really cute when she frowned. She and Sansa had gotten bored over the summer and had experimented with dying their hair. It seemed like Sansa was going to keep being blonde for a bit longer, but Jeyne was letting the auburn she had picked to fade out so her dark brown hair could return.

(Robb preferred her natural hair color, but again, he was moving on without a second thought.)

“Who do you like reading?” He asked.

She may have been his sister’s best friend and they might have all hung out in pretty much the same circle, Robb actually didn’t know that much about Jeyne, he realized.

Jeyne thought that over as they left the aisle and began heading back towards the stairs. “Maya Banks,” she then answered, smiling when she saw that Robb had no idea who that was. “She writes romance novels with half-naked Scottish men on the covers.”

That made Robb snort and she laughed.

“What about you? Do you like Dickens?”

Robb shrugged at that. “I read _Oliver Twist_ and didn’t completely hate it. I don’t know if Dickens would be my first choice though. Ernest Hemingway would be my pick, I think.”

He thought of all of his Ernest Hemingway books at home and how they seemed to be underlined more than his other books.

“Oh, darling, you will be good to me, won’t you? Because we’re going to have a strange life,” Jeyne said suddenly and Robb couldn’t stop the heavy book from falling from his hand, landing onto the hardwood floor with an echoing smack. “ _A Farewell to Arms_ ,” Jeyne then told him.

“Yeah, I… I know.” Robb scooped the book back up, wondering what the Hell was the matter with him. Whatever it was, he felt extremely hot all of a sudden and his heart was beating at a quicker rate than it had been just a second ago.

“Before they married and were still dating, my mom sent my dad a greeting card with that quote on the cover. He still has it on his desk and I’ve always loved it,” Jeyne said with a soft smile.

Mrs. Poole had passed away so many years ago, Jeyne didn’t have a single memory of her. All of her memories came from stories she had heard so many times, she sometimes thought they were her own memories rather than just stories.

“Have you read it?” Robb asked as they continued on down the stairs.

Jeyne shook her head. “It’s my dad’s favorite book, but he only reads it when he is really missing my mom and… I don’t know. I don’t want to read something that means so much to him in his darkest time. What if I read it and absolutely hated it? I couldn’t stand to find out that I hated it. If I hated it, I would force myself to love it and just wind up hating it even more.”

Robb didn’t know what to say to that. He was lucky enough to have both of his parents still. He didn’t know what it would like if his mom or dad died and the remaining parent went on mourning them for years after. He might do the same thing – try to like something because it meant so much to his mom or dad, even if he actually hated it.

“You eat yet?” Robb asked and he had no idea where the Hell _that_ came from.

Jeyne went first and paid for her book and then stepped aside so Robb could pay for his.

“Not yet, but my dad’s grilling steaks tonight so I have starved myself appropriately in preparation.”

Robb cracked a grin at that. He had never really talked with Jeyne – just one-on-one like this. He wondered why he hadn’t. She had been around the Stark house since she was seven. And she was also Sansa’s best friend, Robb reminded himself. Why the Hell couldn’t he remember that?

“Good luck with _Great Expectations_ ,” Jeyne smiled at him, pulling out her car keys.

“Good luck with _The House of Mirth_ ,” Robb smiled back and watched as she walked out of the store, the little bell on the door ringing out after her.

…

Lyanna liked open doors in her house.

She watched too many Lifetime movies and crime documentaries and she saw what teenagers got up to on their computers, behind their _closed_ bedroom doors. She knew that Jon was a teenage boy who needed some privacy, but for the most part, the doors had to remain open.

After Jon came home from the grocery store, they ate dinner together – both talking about their days – and then, Jon helped her clean up as he always did. Lyanna liked to take all of the credit for her son, but he was just so good, she sometimes had no idea at all where he came from.

“I’m going to take a shower and then start studying,” Jon told her once the kitchen was all cleaned up and the leftovers were put away.

“Alright. That new Jeffrey Dahmer documentary airs tonight so you know where I’ll be.”

He smiled at that. “It’s not good that that’s the only kind of thing you watch,” he told her what she already knew. “You have it set up on the DVR?” He then asked.

“It’s all ready to go,” Lyanna confirmed with her own smile. She poured herself a glass of wine from the bottle in the refrigerator. “Don’t study too hard. You study too much, you’ll start not remembering a thing.”

“I know.”

Lyanna got herself settled on the couch with her wine and Ghost, their Malamute dog, as Jon headed for his bathroom. Their house had the kitchen, living room and dining room in the middle and then, the master suite and bathroom – his mom’s room – was on one side of the house and the other bedroom and bathroom – Jon’s – was on the other side of the house.

Jon took a quick shower to wash off his day and when he was out, he brushed his teeth, done for the night and not planning to eat or drink anything else. In his bedroom, he changed into pajama pants and a tee-shirt and after returning his towel to the bathroom, hanging it over the shower bar to dry, he returned to his room and finally sat down at his desk.

He was not going to fail this test. He was NOT going to fail this test. He had assure himself of this in hopes that he would remember it and believe it. He refused to let Mr. Cline and advanced chemistry kick his ass. He needed a firm grasp on chemistry before college. If he wanted to be pre-med, there were classes he would take during his freshman year that would “weed” out those who couldn’t handle the program and chemistry was one of those weed classes. Jon would not let this subject ruin his entire dream for himself.

He had wanted to be a doctor since he was a kid. He couldn’t imagine being anything else.

He had his textbook, his study guide, his trusty highlighter and he dove right in. His mom was right. He knew he couldn’t study too long. His brain would stop absorbing after a point so he thought at least an hour tonight and two tomorrow night, he should be good to go. And with the addition of Sansa’s flashcards tomorrow, he knew it would only help.

His cellphone began to ring, making him jump, and looking at the screen, he saw that he had been studying for a half hour already. Sansa’s name and picture was on the home screen and Jon admitted to smiling just at the sight of her picture.

What was this girl doing to him?

He didn’t know. He didn’t care. Because whatever Sansa was doing to him, he loved it and he only wanted more. Already, he was beginning to forget how it had been _before_ she kissed him and it couldn’t have been too great if he couldn’t remember. (And if he was being honest, there were definitely things he _didn’t_ want to remember in regards to other girls before Sansa.)

“Hey,” Jon answered the phone, still smiling.

“I am so sorry to be calling because I know you’re studying, but what colors do you want for your flashcards? I’m thinking I’ll write the question in black and the answer in red.”

Gods, this girl. How had he known this girl for so many years and not see her or know her?

“That sounds great. You’re the flashcard expert.”

He could now hear Sansa smiling from the other end. “I am,” she agreed. “Black and red it is.”

“How was your piano lesson?” He asked, gratefully giving his brain a short reprieve from studying, and he was more than happy to focus on Sansa.

“It went really well. I have a recital coming up and I’m working on getting this piece just right…” she noticeably trailed off. “Anyway,” she then quickly tried to change the subject.

“What? Tell me.”

“You don’t want to hear about piano pieces.”

“How do you know? Did I tell you I didn’t want to hear about it?”

Sansa paused. “It’s a Chopin piece. Sonata No. 2 in B-flat minor.”

Jon wrote that down in the corner his notebook and then turned to his laptop. “I’m going to YouTube,” he let her know.

“Are you really?” Sansa sounded so surprised.

“Of course I am.”

He had been over at the Stark house plenty of times when Sansa had been in the living room, practicing on the black grand piano, but he admitted that he had never stopped and truly listened to her. He knew Sansa was talented. He didn’t have to be some musical genius to know that Sansa was damn good at the piano.

She was in the pit with the orchestra for every school musical; with the orchestra for every concert. She wouldn’t be playing that much if she wasn’t talented.

“Alright, I think I found it. Opus 35?”

“Jon, you don’t have to-”

Jon cut her off by hitting the button to play the video. “Why don’t you want me to hear it?”

“Because it’s forty-six minutes in four movements and you have a test to study for.”

“Will you play all forty-six minutes?”

“No, I’m just focusing on the first movement.”

“Why don’t you want to talk with me about this?” Jon then had to wonder.

Sansa was quiet and for a moment, he didn’t know if she was going to answer him. “It can be boring. I know that.”

“It’s not boring to you though. And Sansa, you’re making me chemistry flashcards. I’m sure that would be considered fun by _no one_.”

She let out a breath that sounded like a laugh and Jon smiled. He was quiet, listening to the song. It sounded incredible. Classical wasn’t his usual go-to for music – give him his mellow 70s folk and rock no matter how badly his friends ribbed him for it – but this sounded just incredible. Classical music fan or not, that couldn’t be denied.

“Can you promise me something?” Jon said after of listening for a moment. “Can you promise me that you won’t keep things from me just because you think I’ll be bored?”

He could hear her smiling again. “I promise. Promise me the same thing.”

“I promise. In fact, there’s a pulp novel convention I go to every year and it’s in a couple of months. You’re going to be bored out of your mind, but I’m bringing you with me.”

“I have no idea what that is,” Sansa laughed. “I’ll start my research. And I will bring these flashcards to you tomorrow at school.”

“And I’m going to need help studying, too.”

“I will definitely help you and starting right now. Go back to studying, Jon. Good night.”

“Good night, Sansa.”

He ended the call and turned the volume down on the laptop, keeping the music playing. He really was enjoying it and it wasn’t bad music at all to study to.

“Was that Sansa Stark?”

Jon spun around in his chair to see his mom standing in the doorway.

“I wasn’t eavesdropping, I promise,” Lyanna said. “I was in the kitchen and heard you talking. I just wanted to make sure you hadn’t lost your mind and was talking to yourself.”

Jon would have smiled, but instead, he found himself feeling nervous.

“Sansa Stark,” he confirmed. “We’re…”

Dating? They hadn’t actually had that conversation. They must be dating though. Making out, yes. Without question. But it was more than that. If it wasn’t, they wouldn’t already be planning on letting Robb know about them. If they were just making out, there would be nothing to tell.

“She kissed me on Friday, after Pyp’s party,” Jon said. “And then I kissed her after that.”

Lyanna stepped into the room, sitting on the foot of his bed. “So, _that’s_ why you were smiling like that when I asked you about Pyp’s. I knew it had to be something.”

Jon felt his face become warm, but he didn’t deny it. Yes, he was lame and just thinking about Sansa, he felt like smiling.

“What does Robb think?” Lyanna asked.

Jon rubbed the palms of his hands along his thighs. “We haven’t told him yet.” Lyanna’s surprise at that was obvious and Jon hurried on to further explain. “We’re still figuring out exactly what we are and we like having it just between us right now. And… you know how Robb can be.”

“I don’t think that’s a smart move, Jon,” she shook her head. “What happens if he finds out that you two have been keeping it a secret from him? That will be so much worse than you and Sansa just being upfront and honest with him.”

“I know.” And he did. “But we’re not going to keep it a secret forever. We _are_ going to tell him. In a couple of weeks. No longer than that.”

Lyanna was quiet, thinking that over. She then gave Jon a small smile. “I don’t know Sansa that well, only as Robb’s sister. You should bring her for dinner tomorrow night.”

Jon thought that over. That might not be the worst thing in the world. He had dated a few girls, but had only had one serious girlfriend. His mom had not been the biggest fan of Daenerys, to put it lightly. It would be a good thing for his mom to see that he wasn’t dating another Daenerys. She could see that Sansa was the complete opposite of his ex-girlfriend and Sansa was actually good for her son.

“I’ll talk with Sansa about it tomorrow,” Jon promised.

“Good,” Lyanna smiled and standing up, she leaned over and kissed his head. “Still studying or do you want to watch some of the Dahmer documentary with me?”

Jon looked back to his textbook and notebook.

He had to study. He couldn’t _not_ study. But he had flashcards and Sansa helping him tomorrow. Maybe he should do what he normally didn’t when it came to chemistry. Maybe he should just relax and stop stressing his body and mind out.

He closed his book and turned off YouTube. “Dahmer documentary,” he said, standing up, and Lyanna laughed, leaving the bedroom and Jon following behind her.

…

Jeyne Poole

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you very much!! Sansa going to the Snow house in the next chapter for dinner and flashcard studying!


	5. Study Flashcards

[ ](https://www.flickr.com/photos/27464164@N07/50122975981/in/dateposted/)

…

When Catelyn Tully married Ned Stark and moved from her home in the Riverlands to the North, to Winterfell, she had experienced quite a culture shock. Everything seemed to be in shades of gray and white and she had never experienced cold like cold in the North. Ned Stark had been interning for her father, Hoster, but he knew he would not stay in the Riverlands and Catelyn, as she fell in love with him, knew that, too. She knew that when they got married, they would be returning to Ned’s home in the North.

Ned had bought a Victorian-style house to renovate and wanting his wife to be happy, he painted it pink; something to make her smile among all of the grays and whites that surrounded them.

Everyone in Winterfell knew of the beautiful, pink Victorian house and Catelyn just loved it. All of these years later after marrying Ned and coming to Winterfell, it still made her smile. 

Sansa shared a bedroom with her sister, Arya, which they normally didn’t mind. For being so different, the two sisters got along as much as two sisters did while sharing a room. Neither of them had ever murdered the other so Sansa and Arya considered their relationship a good one. It drove Sansa crazy when Arya brought food to eat in their room and left the plates lying around and it drove Arya insane when Sansa left her hair products all over their dresser top, but again, neither had ever killed the other so they learned to live with their annoying habits.

She was nervous. She didn’t know why she was nervous and she kept telling herself there was no reason to be, but for some reason, the overreactive side of her brain didn’t want to listen to the logical side and it insisted on being ridiculously nervous as she stood in front of her closet, trying to figure out what the Hell she should wear.

Sansa had met Ms. Snow in passing a couple of times over the years of Jon and Robb being best friends. The two always insisted on having a joint birthday party – even though their birthdays were actually four months apart – and Ms. Snow would always be there – obviously. But Sansa had never had an actual reason to talk with the woman at length.

But Sansa knew how close Jon and his mother were. It was just the two of them and they had an amazing relationship. And now, Sansa was going there to the Snow house, to have dinner with Jon and his _mother_.

Was it too soon for this? They had just kissed for the first time on Friday night and now, she was meeting his mom. No, she answered her own question. This didn’t feel too soon. It felt right. Somehow, meeting Jon’s mom was the perfect thing to do tonight. That didn’t stop her from feeling so nervous, she might very well throw up in the closet right now.

Should she wear a dress?

Sansa, she frowned at herself. Absolutely not. She was going to the Snow house; not a four-star restaurant in downtown Winterfell. _Not_ to say that Ms. Snow couldn’t cook like one of those restaurants. Oh, boy, Sansa. Calm the Hell down, she told herself again. The point was, it was going to be casual because afterwards, she was helping Jon study for his chemistry test and she very much doubted that Jon would be wearing a tie and suit jacket.

Finally, her brain seemed convinced of that and Sansa finally set about picking out what to wear. Ankle-length blue jeans and a blue-and-white stripped short sleeve sweater with the slightest puff sleeves. She loved how she looked in blue. She always felt pretty when she wore blue and it made her eyes seem even more blue because of it. She sat down on her bed and tugged on her black Converse sneakers before standing up and going to the mirror in the corner, plucking Arya’s sports bra that she had tossed over the top of it back onto her bed.

Sansa looked herself over. Not too bad, she thought. Certainly appropriate to go meet her boyfriend’s mom for dinner.

Was Jon her boyfriend? They hadn’t actually had that conversation yet. _Why_ hadn’t they had that conversation yet? Was it actually needed though? They had kissed – far more than once – and despite her teasing, and then slight worry, she knew that Jon didn’t just kiss a different girl every weekend. They were keeping it from her brother – for the time being – and they wouldn’t be hiding if there was nothing going on between them. But more than that, he had asked her to meet his mom. That meant something.

So damn straight, Jon Snow was her boyfriend.

Leaving her hair in a braid, pulled over her shoulder, that she had worn to school that day, Sansa took a deep breath and left the bedroom, heading down the staircase with every step that creaked. At the bottom of the staircase, there was a stained glass window – another thing her father had installed when he was renovating the house to make his new wife love living here. It was a honeycomb design of yellow and clear glass with a bumblebee in the middle and with the house facing east, when the sun rose and hit the window, the entire staircase seemed to glow yellow.

When she was younger, Sansa daydreamed of her own husband painting their house whatever color Sansa wanted it to be – even pink – and they would have a stained glass window, too.

(She told herself to calm the Hell down because they had just had their _first_ kiss on Friday, but Sansa could already imagine Jon being the kind of husband for both of those things.)

The first floor of the Stark house was in one big loop – each room connected to the other – and at the moment, her three brothers were in the living room, each lounging in some form as they watched the TV. Sansa glanced to the screen and rolled her eyes. Of course. _Hoarders_ was the only show Robb, Bran and Rickon could ever all agree on to watch together.

“Where are you going?” Robb asked as he sat, upside down in the overstuffed armchair, noting that Sansa had changed from what she wore to school that day.

Sansa didn’t answer as she carefully stepped over Rickon, who always commandeered the floor in front of the television, and went through the dining room into the kitchen. Her mom was standing at the island counter in the middle of the room, chopping a head of cabbage, and Arya was sitting at the kitchen table, doing her homework under the watchful eye of their mother.

The year before had not been Arya’s best year – to put it lightly. It had gotten so bad, that when her final report card came, Catelyn actually had to call the school to see if Arya had passed her classes or not because neither Catelyn or Ned could actually tell, seeing so many Cs, Ds and even Fs. Arya had to go to summer school and now, their parents had implemented a strict homework schedule for Arya; she not allowed to do anything until all of her assignments were completed and reviewed by either parent.

“Where are you off to? Dinner will be soon,” Catelyn said, looking to her oldest daughter.

“I actually am off to study,” Sansa told her. Not a lie, she added silently, because technically, she would be studying in a way, helping Jon study with her flashcards. “I have an Algebra II test on Friday that I need to get started getting ready for.”

  
Catelyn smiled and nodded. Sansa had been blessed with a strong use of the creative side of her brain, but whatever portion of her brain that she needed for math and numbers always failed her. If Sansa had a math test coming up, she always felt she had to study longer and harder than anyone else and even then, she always felt very lucky if she squeaked out a high C.

“Don’t be too late, alright?”

“I won’t,” Sansa promised and then kissed her cheek. “Thanks, mom.”

She felt guilty about having to lie to her mom, but it would just be for two weeks and then, she and Jon would tell everyone and going over to Jon’s for dinner and studying wouldn’t have to be kept a secret.

“Do you have anything to eat?” Catelyn asked as Sansa moved to the back door where there were hooks hanging on the wall and Sansa grabbed her schoolbag messenger bag, which was also her purse. “I don’t want you eating out of library vending machines for dinner.”

“I’ll stop at the Whole Foods and get something to eat from the carry-out,” she promised.

“Sansa,” Arya said just as Sansa opened the backdoor. Sansa looked back to her and Arya turned her book around so Sansa could look at it. Sansa leaned down. _What are the four basic story elements?_ Out of the choices, Arya had circled setting, characters, conflict and resolution.

“You got it,” Sansa nodded with a smile.

Arya breathed out with a smile. “Thanks.” She went back to the next question on her worksheet and Sansa headed out, closing the back door behind her.

Sansa had gotten her license that past summer, but she still didn’t feel the need to drive all of the time. Actually, if she could walk somewhere instead of drive, she would walk every time. She and Robb had to share the car, but honestly, the way Robb kept that car, fresh air was preferred.

And maybe walking to the Snow house in so much fresh air, it would keep her calm.

…

Jon was driving her so insane, Lyanna kicked him out of her kitchen. He was a bundle of nerves and while Lyanna found it adorable, she would _never_ tell him that. Right now, he was too annoying for her to let him know that she found him adorable.

Instead, Jon stood at the glass storm door, looking out, keeping an eye out for Sansa. And Lyanna knew when she arrived because Jon suddenly flew the door open and raced outside. Their kitchen overlooked the front of the house and Lyanna looked out the window now to see Jon meeting Sansa halfway in the driveway.

She didn’t mean to, but Lyanna found herself frowning. She thought Sansa had red hair. No. She _knew_ Sansa had red hair. She was blonde now? Her son was dating another blonde? Ugh. After the last blonde her son had dated, Lyanna admitted that she had been looking forward to a redhead. No, Lyanna, no. This was Jon’s ultimate decision of who he dated and if he wanted to date someone with blonde hair, that didn’t mean he was dating another Daenerys-type girl. There were tons of blonde-haired girls and maybe her son just had a type.

“Mom,” Jon smiled as he, with Sansa, came back into the house and into the kitchen, Sansa’s hand tucked into his. “This is Sansa Stark. Sansa, this is my mom.”

Her hair was dyed blonde, Lyanna immediately noted. Okay. That was better. Lyanna could live with dyed blonde. Again, Lyanna, she reminded herself. It wasn’t her decision. And Sansa, sweet girl she clearly was, looked so nervous.

“I am so happy to meet you, Sansa,” Lyanna smiled warmly at her. “ _Officially_ meet you.”

She stepped forward and hugged the girl, Sansa dropping Jon’s hand so she could hug her, too.

“It is so nice to officially meet you, too, Ms. Snow.”

Lyanna pulled back, still smiling at her. Sansa Stark was a very pretty girl and Lyanna admitted that she liked that Sansa was clearly nervous. It showed that meeting Jon’s mom was something that was actually important to her.

“Now, I was going to prepare this whole fancy dinner for you,” Lyanna admitted.

“Oh!” Sansa’s eyes widened. “You didn’t have to go through so much trouble.”

“Don’t worry. She didn’t,” Jon said, holding Sansa’s hand again, and giving it a squeeze.

“I was at work, craving breakfast all day, so that’s what we’re having,” Lyanna finished.

“That sounds amazing,” Sansa smiled.

“Jon told me you weren’t, but just to make sure, you’re not a vegetarian, are you? I fry the bacon and then fry the eggs in the bacon grease.”

“Oh goodness, that sounds so good,” Sansa answered and Lyanna’s smile widened.

Yes, she liked Sansa Stark very much.

“And then for dessert, I have vanilla ice cream. Jon told me how much you love vanilla.”

Sansa looked to Jon at that and she looked so touched, Lyanna’s own heart tightened at the sight.

Oh, she definitely liked Sansa Stark very much.

…

With her stomach full of fried eggs, bacon strips and hash-browns, Sansa followed Jon into his bedroom with her bowl of vanilla ice cream.

She had offered to help Ms. Snow clean up the kitchen after they ate, but the look from Jon’s mom told Sansa that she wasn’t even going to dignify that offer with an answer.

“Did I do alright?” Sansa asked Jon in a quiet voice as he sat down on the floor, his back against his bed. She could hear Ms. Snow cleaning up the kitchen and she knew the woman probably couldn’t hear her, but Sansa wanted to be too careful.

Jon smiled at the question, pausing as he had just put a spoonful of ice cream from his own bowl into his mouth. “It wasn’t a test, Sansa,” he said.

“Yes, it was,” Sansa frowned at him, sitting cross-legged across from him.

Jon just kept smiling and took another spoonful of ice cream. He went to his knees and woke up the laptop on his desk, fiddling around for a moment before music began to play softly. On the way back down, he leaned over and kissed her forehead.

“You are amazing and I know she loves you already,” Jon assured her.

Sansa wanted to believe him.

So she did.

She took a bite of her ice cream and looked around Jon’s bedroom. To no surprise, it was clean; practically impeccable. There weren’t even creases in the green comforter across his bed and the pillows were spaced and arranged to perfection. The books on the shelves were actually organized per their color and there was a corkboard hanging on the wall on one side of his desk Her eyes refused to focus on the picture of Jon and her brother he had tacked there among various ribbons, random concert ticket stubs and a picture of Ghost.

There were posters framed and hanging straight. On the wall behind his bed, there were three, hanging in a row: the human muscular, skeletal and circulatory systems. On the wall space next to the window his desk was in front of, there was a black and white poster of five men.

“The Band?” She guessed.

Jon nodded. “The Band.”

“And this is your favorite song,” she then noted, listening to what was playing through his laptop. Once upon a time, all of their friends had been obsessed with making mixed CDs, and she always knew when Robb was listening to one that Jon had made. This song had been on every single mixed CD Jon had made.

Jon looked at her, clearly amazed. “It is. It’s a Bruce Springsteen song, but The Band covered it and Bruce has always said that he likes this version even better than his own.”

Sansa gave him a smile and then helped herself to another bite of ice cream.

“What’s your favorite song?” He asked.

“Mmmmm.” Sansa thought that over. She could say some classical music piece, but that’s what she loved to play. What did she love to listen to? “Can I just say the entire _Pure Heroine_ album by Lorde?” She then smiled.

Jon smiled, too. “She really did like you. I can tell.”

“Lorde?” She joked and Jon’s smile grew. “How can you tell?”

“She actually asked you questions, wanting to know more about you, and listened to your answers. When my mom met a couple of my other girlfriends, I knew halfway through what my mom thought because she would get quiet.”

Sansa felt her cheeks turn warm at that. She wanted to ask Jon about his other girlfriends, but she didn’t think now was the perfect time for that.

They both turned their heads when they saw Ghost pad into the bedroom. He sniffed at Sansa’s shoulder and then at Jon’s bowl of ice cream before hopping up onto the bed and stretching out.

“Are you ready to get started?” Sansa asked. She had left the messenger bag in his bedroom before dinner and setting her ice cream bowl aside, she reached for it now.

Jon took a deep breath. “No, but yes.” His eyes widened slightly when Sansa pulled the flashcards out that she had prepared for him. They just weren’t black questions with red answers. She had punched holes in the corner so they could hang on a metal ring. “How long did it take you to make those? Please tell me you didn’t put so much time into it.”

Sansa smiled. “I like making flashcards,” she shrugged because to her, it really wasn’t a big deal at all. She loved making flashcards and she loved helping her friends.

“You should charge people for those,” Jon suggested.

“Should I start with you?” She beamed, feeling proud of herself that he was so amazed by something as simple as a set of her flashcards.

“After me, of course,” he said and she laughed at that.

She took another spoonful of ice cream. “Ready?”

Jon took a deep breath and cracked his neck, preparing himself for battle, and Sansa did her best to not smile even though she was fairly certain that he was one of the most adorable things in this entire world.

She flipped to the first card and dove right in. “Please explain temperature,” she read.

Jon didn’t answer right away. He thought of the question and she could see him working the answer out in his brain. “Temperature is a measurement of the average kinetic energy of the molecules within a substance. The three different scales-”

“Ah!” Sansa held up her finger, stopping him. She flipped to the next flashcard. “What are the three different scales used to measure temperature?”

He smiled. “Celsius, Fahrenheit and Kelvin.”

Sansa flipped to the next flashcard. “What are Celsius, Fahrenheit and Kelvin?”

For a moment, Jon looked confused; his brow crinkling adorably. But then, it began to dawn on him as to why Sansa was asking him the same question; just worded differently. Neither of them knew how Mr. Cline would have it on the test and this would help Jon remember this answer no matter which way it was on the test.

“You’re brilliant.”

Sansa felt her cheeks go from pink to a darker red. It had been important to her that Jon like these flashcards and that these actually helped him. Making flashcards and actually enjoying it might have been nerdy of her, she knew, but it was something she did nonetheless and she hadn’t wanted Jon to think she was some nerd for it.

He looked at her now though as if he was completely in awe over her and her flashcards, Sansa felt her chest tighten. He leaned forward then and with a hand sliding onto her cheek, he pressed his lips to hers in a soft, drawn out kiss and though she knew they had to continue his review session, that didn’t stop Sansa from pressing her lips back against his.

“Jonathan,” Lyanna called out from the kitchen. “That doesn’t look like studying to me.”

“Mom,” Jon let out a sound that couldn’t be mistaken for anything other than a whine and Sansa couldn’t stop herself and had to hold the flashcards to her face to try and hide her laughter.

…

Jon's favorite song - and the story of Bruce Springsteen is true

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much!! I loved writing this chapter and I hope you loved reading it!


	6. Vanilla Cremes

…

Even in a class of seniors, Mr. Cline still insisted on sitting everyone per the alphabet. It made Jon hate the difficult teacher just a little bit more because, per the alphabet, Snow and Targaryen sat next to one another. And he knew that Mr. Cline didn’t give a shit about high school relationships – nor should he – but no other teacher made their senior classes sit according to the alphabet. Jon was convinced it was just another (small) way for Mr. Cline to show how much he hated all of them.

The lab tables had two stools per each table and Jon ignored the girl sitting next to him as he did a last minute run through of all of the flashcards. He still had no idea why the Hell Daenerys was taking advanced chemistry. He didn’t want to sound full of himself – or paranoid – but he couldn’t help but think that she had taken it because she knew he was taking it. No person – sane or insane – would take advanced chemistry with Mr. Cline willingly. But a stalker? Maybe.

_What is the lists of electromagnetic radiation bands in order of frequency?_

Jon closed his eyes, thinking of the answer. Radio, infra-red, visible, ultraviolet.

He flipped over the card and smiled when he saw the correct answer. He knew this. He was completely confident that he knew all of this. He was destined for an “A” in some form. If he got less, he would fully prepare himself to argue with Mr. Cline about it. Arguing with Mr. Cline about a grade might very well be a death sentence, but Jon felt so ready for this test – thanks to Sansa’s flashcards – he knew, with complete confidence, he wasn’t going to get anything less.

“What are you those?”

Suddenly, he was accosted with the sugary scent of the perfume Daenerys always wore as she leaned in, pressing into his arm so she could look at the flashcards.

“What do they look like?” He frowned, turning to the next flashcard.

“You didn’t make those.” She said that with a frown; as if she could sniff another girl’s scent permeating from the index cards in Jon’s hands.

Jon turned his head to look at her, still frowning. “Can I help you with something, Dany?” He rarely had any patience for his ex-girlfriend and today was no exception. They had a test in a few minutes, for Mr. Cline, and that was never to be taken lightly.

Daenerys Targaryen transferred to Winterfell High School from an all-girls’ private school in Essos during their sophomore year and the first time he saw her, Jon thought she was the most beautiful girl he had ever seen. She was petite with long, blonde hair – hair so blonde, it was practically white – and the most intriguing purple eyes.

Jon fell in love with her the second he saw her. How could he not? She was beautiful. (And Jon now knew that there was far more to people – and love – than looks, but try telling that to a sixteen-year-old boy who honestly thought about one thing a majority of the time.)

It was all a disaster, as Jon would learn within a few months of dating her. She had been selfish, vain, and fully expected Jon to always worship the ground she walked on. Suddenly, Jon found that he didn’t have the time for his friends or his mom. There was only Daenerys and everything he did was wrapped up in her and that was just the way she wanted it.

Looking back on it, it had been amazing that Jon had mad the time to study as hard as he always did for all of his classes because obviously, schoolwork meant that Daenerys wasn’t his priority.

She had been so calculating in how she cut him off from everyone; so sneaky and slow-moving, Jon hadn’t even realized she had done it until it had already happened.

His mom had tried to talk to him about this relationship he was in. He was too consumed with it; too obsessed with her. It was like he had been taken over by someone Lyanna didn’t even recognize anymore. But his mom telling him that she didn’t like his girlfriend did nothing except infuriate Jon and mother and son began do to something they had never done before. They fought. They argued. Jon outright ignored her sometimes and disobeyed her other times. How dare his mom not like his girlfriend. How could Lyanna not like Daenerys?

Robb was finally the one to snap Jon the Hell out of it. They had been at the drive-in – not together because Jon wasn’t really hanging out with his friends anymore; just Daenerys – and Jon had been at the concession stand, talking with a girl from his biology class. When Daenerys had come, looking for him, she had been furious that she found him talking with another girl.

They had started fighting – well, Daenerys had been yelling at him and Jon had just stood there and taken it, because when it came to Daenerys, that’s what he did – and then, Daenerys reached out and slapped a hand right across Jon’s face.

It actually wasn’t the first time she had slapped or smacked him, but it was the first time she had done so in public in front of so many other people. Jon stood there, his cheek burning, and the rest of him burning with embarrassment that people were looking; had seen Jon get hit by his girlfriend. He felt embarrassed and ashamed.

“Hey!” Robb shouted and suddenly, he was standing in front of Jon as if protecting him from Dany. “What the Hell do you think you’re doing?”

“I’m talking with my boyfriend, Robb,” Dany frowned at him.

“I’m not the sort to hit girls, but if you hit first, that makes you fair game in my opinion,” Robb said – daring her – and Daenerys knew he was.

The showdown between best friend and girlfriend seemed to stretch on and on, in Jon’s mind, but finally, he heard Daenerys sigh heavily and turn away, storming off. Jon took one step forward, after her, before Robb turned back to face him and put a hand on his chest.

“Don’t you even fucking think about it. We’re ending this Lifetime movie,” Robb frowned. He physically turned Jon around and move him in the opposite direction.

It took Jon the rest of the year and he didn’t even realize how deeply Daenerys had embedded herself into his life until he was working to remove her again.

Now, two years later, he could hardly mask the thin veil of hate every time he looked at her. And something about her even looking at Sansa’s flashcards made him pull them closer to him. He didn’t want _anything_ that had to do with Sansa even being the faintest ping on Dany’s radar.

“I just didn’t study that much,” Daenerys finally answered Jon’s question with a shrug. “Can I look at those flashcards when you’re done?”

Jon just frowned at her. “Hell, no, you can’t look at my flashcards.”

“That’s rather mean of you, Jon,” she frowned in return.

Jon began looking at the floor around his stool. “I’m looking for that shit you thought I gave. I must have dropped it.”

Daenerys’s frown grew deeper and her purple eyes flashed like they did whenever she was furious. And two years ago, Jon would have cared. He would have done anything to make sure that she never frowned – especially at him.

But that was when he was a sophomore and he wasn’t a sophomore anymore.

More than that, he had Sansa now and when it came to the two girls, Sansa was _nothing_ like Daenerys. Absolutely nothing. And that was exactly what Jon wanted. More than that, there were a lot of girls who were nothing like Daenerys, but it was _Sansa_ who Jon wanted.

Daenerys could flash her eyes at him all she wanted. He could only hope she fail out of Mr. Cline’s class and make this semester for him just that much better.

The bell rang before Daenerys could snap something back at him and Mr. Cline came in, slamming the door shut behind him as he always did. If someone was late to Mr. Cline’s class, they knew better than to even think about opening that door again.

“Don’t worry,” he whispered to Daenerys because he couldn’t _not_ make sure he got the last word when it came to her. “I’m sure you were going to say something beautifully threatening.”

“Put your things away. This will take all forty minutes of the class period and if it doesn’t…” Mr. Cline began handing out the test papers he held in one arm. “Please be assured that you didn’t get a good grade.”

Jon exhaled a series of deep breaths as Mr. Cline dropped two stapled tests in front of him, moving on, and Jon passed one of the tests along the table to Daenerys, staring down at his.

Name – well at least he knew he could fill in that blank. Someone coughed.

“Silence,” Mr. Cline said to them all. “You can either cough or take the test. You can’t do both.”

Jon took another deep breath. Question one. Light from a sodium street lamp is found to have a frequency of 5.09 x 104 Hz. Calculate the wavelength of this light in nanometers. He read through the question – twice – and then, in the space provided, he began to work out his calculation. Mr. Cline needed to see all formulas and calculation. When he figured out his answer - .(589 nm) – he made sure to double-check his work before moving onto the next question with another deep breath.

He worked through both pages and true to Mr. Cline’s word, it took him all forty minutes. By the time the bell rang, Jon had just been able to go over every one of his answers for the second time. He glanced over to Daenerys and he didn’t even try to hide back his smile. It looked like she had just been through a rather intense battle and she did _not_ come out the victor. Oh, well. Sucked for her. As for Jon, he wanted to find Sansa, haul her into his arms and lay the biggest kiss on her; and then kiss her until neither of them could breathe.

He was the last to leave the class and drop his test onto the pile with the others on Mr. Cline’s desk. As he did, Mr. Cline picked it up and gave it a glance over.

“Should I have my red pen later, Snow?” The man asked, lifting his eyes to Jon. “You know I like to buy a fresh box every grading period and I feel like I haven’t used them nearly enough yet.” He picked up the closest red pen just in case Jon had no idea what a red pen was and needed to actually see it.

“Not for me. Not this time,” Jon shook his head with a smile.

His mom had an expression – a rather crude one – but it always made him smile because whenever his mom said it, he knew that she truly meant it. He had never felt it himself, but now, _now_ , he knew exactly what his mom meant and this expression was the only way to explain how he was feeling right now; knowing that he had just nailed this test.

He was as happy as a pig in shit.

…

“What?” Robb exclaimed. “You only have sugar free nonpareils left? Susan, what are you doing to me? Why do these even exist?”

Susan Mordane, one of the proprietors of Mordane’s, along with her husband, and who always worked the front register and the candy counter next to it, just laughed from behind the candy counter. “Do you want some?” She asked.

Robb paused and then sighed. “Quarter of a pound. If I hate them, I’ll give them to my dad.” He looked to Jon. “You know what you want? I’ll cover it this time if you want to get next time.”

Jon shook his head. “No, that’s alright. Thanks though. I’m getting something a bit more expensive today.”

Robb frowned a little, clearly wondering, and handed Susan the two dollars as she handed him his clear plastic bag of chocolate. “What are you getting?”

Jon had been studying the chocolates and candies behind the glass case before standing up and pointing to one, looking to Susan. “I’m going to get a pound of the dark chocolate vanilla cremes,” he ordered.

“Who the Hell are those for?” Robb asked, having already opened his bag of candy. He popped a nonpareil into his mouth and made a face as he chewed.

Immediately, Jon considered lying. He could say they were for his mom and Robb wouldn’t blink an eye at that. But that lie wouldn’t hold up and why couldn’t he tell him the truth? There was absolutely no harm to this particular trust.

“I’m buying them for Sansa,” Jon answered. “She made me flashcards for that chemistry test I had today and she saved my ass. I want to thank her.”

Robb was quiet as he popped another nonpareil in his mouth, making the same face as he chewed. “That’s nice,” he gave a nod.

Susan handed Jon his much bigger, heavier bag of chocolates and Jon handed her fifteen dollars. He hoped Sansa would like these. He hoped Sansa would _accept_ them. It wasn’t just because of the chemistry flashcards and her helping him study. Yes, those were two very good reasons to buy her a pound of chocolates, but more than that, he wanted to buy her something because he was crazy about her.

Should he tell her that? Of course he should tell her that. He didn’t want her to think that he was only doing anything with her because he liked kissing her and because he liked keeping things secret. Yes, he already introduced her to his mom so it might be already obvious that he’s crazy for her, but there was no harm in actually telling her that.

After leaving Mordane’s, they got into their cars and Jon followed Robb to the Stark house. As Robb pulled into the driveway, Jon pulled to the curb in front of the house. His mom had to work a little bit late – one day of the week at the infusion office a little crazier than other days – and the Starks had no problem with Jon coming over for dinner. Jon could obviously take care of himself when it came to feeding himself, but he liked that the Starks wanted to make sure he ate when his mom had to work.

Walking up the front path to the Stark’s pink house, he could hear piano playing from inside. Robb came up the side steps onto the front porch and went through the front door first with Jon following after him, closing the door behind him. Normally, taking one step into the house, Jon would immediately see one or two other Stark siblings, but there was no one.

He and Robb took off their shoes and dropped their bags onto the floor before going into the living room. Sansa was at the piano in the corner of the room, in front of the bay windows, playing, and their eyes met almost immediately. Her lower face was hidden behind the music rack, where her sheet music was, but he could see the way her eyes crinkled and her cheeks upturned. She was obviously smiling and Jon smiled, too.

He glanced through the living room into the dining room. Ah. That’s where everyone else was. Arya was doing her homework – as she was supposed to after school every day – but Rickon and Bran were also sitting at the dining room table, which only meant one thing. The boys had done something to piss Catelyn off.

Robb headed into the kitchen, flicking Rickon’s ear as he passed and Rickon immediately kicking him to the back of his knee, and Jon headed towards the piano.

Sansa smiled and moved over on the bench – a silent invitation – and her fingers never stopped moving over the ivory keys. Jon looked to the sheet music. Waltz in E Flat Major by Beethoven.

“Is this for your recital?” Jon asked and then he wondered if asking her a question was ruining her concentration.

Sansa just shook her head and smiled. “It’s just for fun. Can you turn the page for me?”

“Now?” His hand immediately moved to the corner of the page.

“Turn… now.” He did it as quickly as he could and Sansa laughed as he did. “Thank you.”

The song was a fast tempo one and Jon couldn’t read music so he looked at her fingers instead. They were long and slim and they practically flew across the keys. When the song was over, the last notes echoing in the room, Jon managed to stop himself before he could start applauding.

Sansa looked at him and she was still smiling, her cheeks the most beautiful shade of pink.

“I brought you something. To thank you for helping me with my test and because…” he paused, looking into her eyes; hoping no one else was paying attention to them because Jon and Sansa sitting on a piano bench together, staring into one another’s eyes might just be a little suspicious. “And because I’m crazy about you, Sansa.”

Her lips parted ever so slightly. “You are?”

“I brought you over to meet my mom and my mom’s insane,” Jon reminded her.

“Your mom is lovely,” Sansa said, almost laughing.

They both talked in low voices and tried to act as casual as possible, but Jon had to wonder how casual they were being if Jon was acting so aware of having to be as casual as possible.

“And I want to take you out.”

“To Wendy’s?”

“If you want, but I was thinking maybe somewhere a step above Wendy’s.”

“Arby’s?”

Jon grinned at that and she laughed. He wanted to do nothing more than lean over right now and press his lips right to hers, but there was no way he could do that. Not yet. One more week and then he could kiss her whenever he wanted – hopefully.

Since he couldn’t kiss her, he had to settle for something else. Taking the bag of chocolates from where he had rested it on the floor next to the bench, he gently set it down in her lap.

“Vanilla cremes,” he said. “Thank you for everything. And… Arby’s if you want, but I am prepared to go a little bit more than that.”

…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> THANK YOU very much!! Oddly enough, I really loved writing Mr. Cline lol


	7. Arby's

…

Robb frowned as he looked at his chocolate chip cookies, fresh from the oven. Something had obviously happened to them. They didn’t look right – to put it mildly. They didn’t really look cooked, but he had left them in for as long as he was supposed to, per the teacher’s recipe.

He set the tray down on the potholder on the counter, flung off his oven mitts and picked up the laminated recipe now. He did that. He did that. Yep, yep, and yep. He went down the list of ingredients and the numerical steps, knowing that he had done every single one of them. So why did his cookies look too small and too white? He was half tempted to take a picture of the batch and send it to his mom, asking her what the Hell happened.

“I don’t think you used enough sugar,” Jeyne suddenly said from his side.

Robb was still frowning as he looked at her. “One cup of white sugar and one cup of brown sugar. That’s what I did.”

He watched as Jeyne reached to one of his cookies, breaking off a small piece, and she brought it to her lips, popping it into her mouth. She chewed for a moment and then nodded.

“It’s dry on the outside and doughy on the inside. It also doesn’t taste like a chocolate chip cookie. It’s more like shortbread. Try it,” she suggested.

Robb sighed heavily, but did as his sister’s best friend told him. (Keeping Jeyne with that label was still very important.) He broke off a piece of the same cookie and brought it to his mouth.

“Son of a fuck,” he grumbled to himself once he tasted it. Jeyne was right. It tasted like shortbread and not like how a chocolate chip cookie was supposed to taste like.

Jeyne heard and smiled. “You’re not the first to not bake a perfect batch of chocolate chip cookies, Robb.”

Robb just kept frowning. “Let’s see yours.”

She hesitated. “They’re not that good.”

She had been working at the station behind him and Robb instantly spun around. Jeyne’s dozen cookies were from the tray, laid out on the cooling rack and looking to be ready for their magazine photo shoot. Robb stared at them and then looked at her. Her cheeks turned pink and she shrugged her shoulders.

“Sansa and I spent that entire summer before eighth grade baking nothing except chocolate chip cookies,” she reminded him. “I’ve just had more practice than you.”

“Can you help me?” He asked.

There was no harm in asking the question, in Robb’s opinion. Yes, Jeyne was his sister’s best friend, but did that mean he could never talk to her or ask for help when they were in the same class? It was obvious Jeyne was damn good at baking chocolate chip cookies and the midterm in their home ec. class was to bake a dozen cookies. Robb knew that if today was the midterm, this batch he had just baked would give him a ‘C’, at best. And yes, he was clearly taking this class because he was a senior and wanted to take it easy and coast this year, BUT that didn’t mean that he wanted to be the first person to actually ever fail a home economics class.

Jeyne seemed to be thinking his question over and Robb had to wonder what she thought of him. Was he just Sansa’s brother? And why the Hell did he wonder if he was anything else to her?

“Of course I’ll help,” Jeyne said with a smile. “You can come over this weekend and we’ll get you packing that sugar tight enough in no time.”

Robb blinked at her. “What?”

Jeyne’s smile began to fade. “You have to pack the brown sugar tightly. You probably didn’t pack it tight enough.”

“Please stop saying pack and tight enough!” Robb suddenly burst out.

She was just his sister’s best friend but there were still words he didn’t need Jeyne Poole to say to him. He was eighteen-years-old and a guy. _Any_ girl could say those kinds of words to him and he would react. It wasn’t just because it was Jeyne saying that. He meant that.

Jeyne jumped slightly – surprised – at the exclamation.

“Ah, let’s take a look,” the teacher, Mrs. Knight, appeared at Robb’s workstation. “Hmmm. Not enough sugar, Robb. Did you pack the brown sugar tight enough to make one cup?”

Robb commended himself for _not_ taking his cookies and throwing them across the room.

…

Sansa had to tell Jeyne. Sansa and Jeyne told one another _everything_ and this was something big and Sansa couldn’t not tell her best friend about it.

“Jeyne,” Sansa whispered as they shared a table in the library. Both girls had opted to take a study hall this year so they weren’t doing their homework for hours every night. “I have to tell you something, but you must swear to me that you won’t tell anyone.”

Jeyne immediately looked up from her book and notebook and gave Sansa her full attention.

“ _But_ I don’t want to tell you all of the details so when the secret comes out, you’ll have plausible deniability,” Sansa added.

“Plausible deniability? Have you murdered someone?” Jeyne had to ask.

“If I did, you know I would need your help,” Sansa reminded her.

“So, what is it?” Jeyne turned in her chair more towards her. “Are you on drugs?”

“I can’t even take Nyquil without feeling loopy.”

“Are you pregnant?”

“Without telling you that I had sex?”

“So, what is it?” Jeyne asked again.

“I’m seeing someone-”

“A teacher?”

Sansa made a face at that. “Who, at this school, would you _ever_ date?”

“Mr. Lannister is certainly lovely to look at.”

“Alright, yes, but I’m not dating Mr. Lannister.”

Mr. Jaime Lannister was the gym teacher and this was his first year at Winterfell High School. He and his wife had just moved to Winterfell that past summer and Sansa did admit that he was quite the handsome man. Almost every single girl in their school enjoyed looking at him and hardly any of them groaned when Mr. Lannister told them to run ten laps around the gym.

“Who are you dating?”

Sansa almost told her. _Almost_. But she didn’t want to tell Jeyne. It wasn’t because she thought Jeyne would tell her secret. It was just Sansa’s secret – hers and Jon’s – and she meant it. The less Jeyne knew, the better. She could genuinely act surprised with everyone when Sansa and Jon told everyone that they were seeing each other.

“I can’t tell you,” Sansa exhaled heavily and shook her head. “But I’m going to use you as an excuse when I go see him so… do you mind?”

“I’ll cover for you as long as you need me to.” Sansa smiled at her best friend and Jeyne smiled, too. It faded from her face though. “Just please promise me that this isn’t some guy you met on the internet and he’s really fifty-years-old and you’re meeting him at some seedy motel.”

“Why does the motel have to be seedy? There’s some really nice-”

“Sansa!” Jeyne said too loudly and was instantly hushed by the librarian. She didn’t seem sorry for it though and kept giving Sansa a hard stare.

“I promise, Jeyne. He’s a boy in our school and there’s no internet or motel involved.”

“Then back to my original promise. I will cover for you as long as you need me to.”

…

Robb was with mom in the kitchen – Sansa didn’t understand how someone could be doing badly in home ec. – and they were baking cookies. Arya had finished her homework and had been permitted to go to her friend’s house, Lommy, who lived across the street. Bran was upstairs in his room, reading, and Rickon was in the living room with Ned; Rickon watching a movie and Ned reading the newspaper that he never had time to read in the mornings so he read at night after dinner.

“I’m going to Jeyne’s!” Sansa called out from the bottom step so Catelyn would hear her.

A moment later – “Have fun, dear!” Catelyn called back.

Sansa smiled and went to Ned, bending down and kissing his cheek. “Bye, dad.”

“Eight o’clock,” he reminded her.

“I know,” she moved towards the front door.

It was getting colder at nights and once the door was shut behind her, Sansa paused on the front porch to tug on her black cardigan sweater. A couple of houses down, she saw headlights flick on and off, signaling to her, and Sansa smiled and she didn’t stop as she hurried down the sidewalk to Jon’s car.

She opened the passenger door, the dome light coming on, and her smile grew as she saw him sitting in the seat behind the steering wheel. Perhaps they were being _too_ careful and _too_ secretive, but Sansa’s heart was pounding and she admitted that there was something fun about it, too. (She knew it would be fun when Jon picked her up at the front door, too.)

“Hey,” Jon was smiling, too, and when she closed her door, the car was dark again except the lights coming from the dashboard and radio.

“Hi,” Sansa breathed and she leaned in first, pressing her lips to his.

Instantly, Jon’s hands were on either side of her head, framing her face, and Sansa lifted a hand, bringing it to a rest on his chest.

She absolutely loved kissing Jon. He had decided to grow out a beard this year and he was only the second boy she had ever kissed, but she very much liked kissing a boy with a beard. It was scratchy, but it also tickled and it was such a mixture of sensations, it made her want to giggle and moan all at the same time.

Eventually, they did pull their lips apart. They only had until eight o’clock and making out with Jon in the front seat of his car was very, _very_ nice, but he had also promised her dinner.

“I’m serious. We can go anywhere you want to go,” Jon said.

“But I have a taste for Arby’s,” Sansa smiled. “Unless… do you hate Arby’s?”

Jon broke into a grin as he shifted gears and pulled away from the curb. “Taco Bell is my favorite.”

“Why didn’t you tell me? Do you want to go to Taco Bell?”

“Because I told you I would take you somewhere a step above Wendy’s and you picked Arby’s. Tonight is your choice.”

“We’ll do Taco Bell on our next date,” Sansa promised.

“We don’t always have to go out for fast-food. We could actually go somewhere nice.”

“Like where? I won’t let you use your paychecks just to feed me. You work at the grocery store for money to help with college; _not_ to feed me.”

“I like feeding you.”

Jon’s words made Sansa’s cheeks feel a burst of heat and she had no idea what to say to that.

“That sounded a lot cruder than I ever meant for it to,” Jon said.

His words made Sansa laugh and her face still felt hot, but turning her head, even in the darkness semi-darkness of the car, his face looked a bit red, too. His embarrassment made hers lessen.

“I don’t have any experience with things like that,” she then said though she knew Jon probably knew that. And if he didn’t exactly know that, he could have certainly made a correct guess about it. A single kiss with Harry when she was a freshman – and Robb scaring him off – and then, not another boy until Jon. Her inexperience – if they made it to that point with one another – would be painfully obviously.

“I’m not some expert either, Sansa,” Jon shook his head.

Sansa pursed her lips together and though she didn’t want to necessarily ask it, she had to. “You and Daenerys… did you…” She felt like a child for not being to even form the complete words.

“Yeah,” Jon seemed reluctant to tell her that and Sansa had figured that answer, but she didn’t necessarily like hearing it. “We were each other’s first.”

Sansa nodded because what did she say to that? She felt like having this conversation was way too soon. They were just kissing and going to Arby’s. They weren’t having sex tonight. They were having _nothing_ resembling anything even close to sex.

“So, I know Arby’s has vanilla shakes, but I can’t get one,” Sansa abruptly changed topics.

That would be a conversation for a much later day.

“Why can’t you get one?” Jon smiled and up ahead, Sansa saw the neon Arby’s sign.

“Because, Jon Snow, since our first kiss, it has been nothing, but vanilla this and vanilla that and you’re very terrible for my teeth and body.”

“You have a fantastic body, Sansa Stark.”

“I _handed_ you that compliment,” she laughed and he grinned.

…

With their roast beef sandwiches, curly fries and cups of Dr. Pepper, Jon and Sansa chose a booth and slid in across from one another. He watched as she popped a curly fry into her mouth and moaned a little.

“Thank you for dinner,” Sansa smiled and he smiled, too.

“You’re welcome. And buying you dinner a couple of nights a week isn’t going to set me back,” Jon then told her. “I’m going to get scholarships to help with college.”

Sansa kept smiling at that. He spoke with such confidence, but not cockiness. There was a difference. Jon spoke with complete belief in himself and he should. Jon was so smart and was such a hard worker, any pre-med program at any university would be lucky to have Jon Snow.

“What kind of doctor do you want to be?” She asked.

Jon had just taken a bite of his roast beef sandwich and he paused so he could chew and swallow.

“I’m not sure. I was thinking that I would figure that out when I took more classes.” Sansa nodded. That made perfect sense. “I was thinking maybe a family practitioner, but I don’t know if I would be bored with that.”

“I think you’d be an amazing family doctor,” Sansa told him. “I’d love for you to be my doctor.”

Realizing what she said – and how that might be interpreted – her face, once again, exploded in heat. She put down her sandwich and covered her face with her hands, almost laughing because she began to feel the embarrassment bubble in her chest.

“Sansa,” Jon said and it sounded like he was trying not to laugh, too.

She lowered her hands to look at him; amazed that she was able to look at him across the table from her. He really was the most handsome boy and she kept blurting out these things to him. First, his balls and now, being her doctor. Was Jon Snow the first boy she had ever spoken to?

“If you ever go see another doctor, you’ll break my heart.”

Her face was still red, but she was able to smile now, too. “You’re the only future doctor for me, Jon Snow.” And maybe it was a silly promise seventeen and eighteen-year-olds made to each other when the future was still so many years away, but it felt like the easiest promise she had ever made to anyone.

…

Parked a few houses down like he had when he picked her up, Jon and Sansa sat, kissing one another until the windows were slightly fogged over and it was five minutes until eight.

“Tomorrow,” she whispered because she felt like at this hour, things were whispered.

“Tomorrow,” Jon whispered back. “Good night.”

Sansa kissed him one more time. “Good night.”

She got out of his car, feeling him watching her, and she gave him one more smile before she began hurrying down the sidewalk, back to the Stark house. She had never been late and she knew her dad would still be sitting in his chair in the living room because when one of his kids was out, that was what Ned Stark did until every one of them was home again.

And sure enough, when Sansa unlocked the front door, Ned was sitting there, now watching a Jason Statham movie. It might have sounded strange, but her family loved action movies; absolutely loved them. Even Catelyn. Even Sansa. Sometimes, Ned and Catelyn would declare a movie night and the whole family gathered together with popcorn and root beer floats and nine times out of ten, it would be an action movie. Jon and Jeyne were usually at movie nights, too.

“Hi, dad,” she smiled.

“Hi, sweetheart.” Ned muted the television and stood up immediately.

“Are you alright?” She then asked because his actions seemed a little off.

Ned nodded and then cocked his head to the side. Sansa frowned a little but followed him into the dining room; away from the stairs. Upstairs, she could hear the rest of her family: listening to music, getting ready for bed, Catelyn yelling at Rickon for something.

As soon as Ned thought they were out of earshot of everyone, Ned turned back to her. “Are you and Jon Snow dating?” He spoke lowly.

“What?” Sansa’s eyes widened. “How did… did you… how?” She sputtered.

“I had gotten up to make sure the front door was locked and I saw Jon Snow’s car drive past. I know Jon’s car and thought it was strange he wasn’t stopping here. And then I saw blonde in the front seat.”

Sansa looked to her father and considered lying for half a second. But she couldn’t lie to him.

“Yes, we are. And Robb doesn’t know.”

“And you both think that keeping it from him is smart?”

“Are you angry?”

“Why would I be angry?” Ned asked, curious. “I know Jon as well as I know any of my kids. He’s a great kid and I won’t have to lecture him about him needing to treat you right. Do you want me to be angry?”

Sansa shook her head. “We’ve only… it’s been for about a week but I really like him, dad.”

“That’s great, Sansa,” Ned smiled. “I don’t like the idea of you dating _any_ boy, but I suppose I’ll take Jon Snow if you do have to date. But you need to tell Robb because I’m not getting in the middle of this and I’m not keeping secrets for anyone.”

“We’re going to tell Robb soon,” Sansa quickly nodded. “He’s just… you know how he can be.”

“He gets the dramatics from your mother’s side,” Ned nodded knowingly. “Still, tell him. You’re not doing anything wrong and don’t let Robb convince you that you are.”

Sansa was quiet for a moment, thinking that over. “You’re right.”

Ned smiled a little and with an arm around her shoulders, he kissed her head and they headed back into the living room. “Of course I am.”

…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So many food themed chapters in this story - I think I might keep that up lol THANK YOU!!


	8. Gym and Psych

…

Mr. Lannister blew the whistle that hung around his neck. “Four laps! Go!” He called out.

The class took off, their pounding feet on the gym floor echoing throughout the cavernous room. Pyp and Theon decided that today, they would skip their laps – like idiots – and as they always did, Jon and Robb ran together, keeping the same steady pace.

“Something’s going on with Sansa,” Robb said.

Jon made a conscious effort to not whip his head to look at him. “What do you mean?” He asked casually.

“She was whistling this morning.”

“And that’s bad?”

Robb shook his head. “People only whistle when they’re hiding something or because they got laid.”

And at his best friend’s words, Jon proceeded to trip over his own feet and fall flat on the gym floor. There was a group of girls running behind them and they shrieked and cried out with surprise at the body now in front of them and most were able to quickly skirt around him but others had to actually leap over his body. And this being a gym class of teenagers, of course the majority of those present began laughing and cheering.

“Robb finally swept you off your feet, Snow?” Theon called out with a grin and Pyp let out a whoop.

Not for the first time, Jon had to wonder why he was friends with such morons.

“Snow, you alright?” Mr. Lannister was suddenly at his side.

“I’m fine,” Jon quickly pushed himself back to his feet before Mr. Lannister could do something to further his embarrassment and offer his hand or something. “I tripped over my laces.”

Both Jon and Mr. Lannister looked down to Jon’s feet at the same time – and the tightly tied laces of his sneakers Thankfully, the teacher didn’t say anything as he took a step back and blew his whistle again.

“Alright! I didn’t tell any of you to stop running!” He shouted to them. “And Theon, you keep it up, I’m having the first who can do it, to pull your shorts down for your daily dose of embarrassment!”

Robb snorted at that and Jon would have smiled but Robb’s previous words were preventing him from doing so. They began to run again and Robb looked to Jon, frowning a little with a furrowed brow.

“You alright?” He asked.

“Yeah, just drunk,” Jon shrugged. “So, what’s the big deal about Sansa whistling?”

“When I asked her about it, she almost seemed to get really panicky and asked why she can’t whistle.”

Jon did his best to not swallow or gulp. There was nothing wrong with whistling. It wasn’t as if Sansa had written his name with hearts all over her notebook. There were dozens of reasons why a person was whistling and dating her brother’s best friend in secret was just _one_ of those reasons. And no offense to Robb, but there was no way he’d be able to guess that one.

“And why can’t she whistle?”

“I told you the reasons why people whistle.”

“Those aren’t the only reasons people whistle, Robb.”

“Fine. If you were one of the seven dwarfs, heading to the diamond mines, you whistle, but since Sansa isn’t that, I stand by my previous statement. And I know my sister. Something is _definitely_ going on.” Robb frowned now as he fell into deep thought, clearly thinking about Sansa. “I know Sansa isn’t the sort to just sleep with a guy. She doesn’t have a boyfriend and she wouldn’t sleep with just any guy _unless_ they were her serious boyfriend. So I don’t think it’s that. She _has_ to be hiding a secret from me.”

“She’s seventeen-years-old, Robb. She keeps secrets. That’s what girls her age do,” Jon did his best to shrug and appear as casual as possible.

His heart was hammering and it had nothing to do with the laps they were almost finished running. Jon knew that Robb wouldn’t guess. He didn’t have the first clue as to even look to Jon. There was no reason for Jon to be nervous or worried. The _only_ thing that could begin to make Jon a little nervous was the Stark stubbornness that all of the Starks had – Robb included. When they set their minds to do something, they were like a dog with a bone and didn’t let go. If Robb began to fixate on why Sansa was whistling and try to figure out _why_ she was whistling, it might lead him somewhere Jon didn’t want him to go.

“How do you know that that’s what girls her age do?” Robb asked.

“I don’t have sisters, but I _do_ talk to girls on occasion,” Jon rolled his eyes at him. “Girls never say or admit what they’re really thinking.” And then, to prove his point, he turned around, jogging backwards. “Kristen,” he said to the fellow senior running behind him with a couple other girls. “Do you think Robb is cute?”

“I think you’re an idiot,” Kristen replied without missing a beat but her cheeks were a little flushed and they weren’t the kind of flush from running laps around the gym.

Jon just gave a grin and then turned around to jog forward once again.

“You are an idiot,” Robb agreed, but Jon seemed to have distracted him enough to stop talking about Sansa.

Jon would have to talk to Sansa about her whistling and make her aware of it so she wasn’t doing it again. And if she did do it again and Robb caught her, she needed to have a cover story ready; one that took Robb _far_ off the trail of anywhere near Jon.

Mr. Lannister had gone to the supplies closet and returned with a basket of tennis balls. “Good job, everyone,” he said once the last student finished the fourth lap. “Alright. We’re going to play a game of Frantic today.”

That was met with a few _yes’s_ and shared hand slaps. Mr. Lannister knew that his fourth period class was full of juniors and seniors who no longer needed to take gym but chose to either because they actually liked it or because they wanted an easy class. Either way, Mr. Lannister wanted them to have fun.

Frantic was this. There were enough tennis balls for each student and they spread out randomly around the gym. On Mr. Lannister’s signal, he would toss, roll or kick the balls out and the students frantically ran for them. They then did anything they had to do to keep all of the balls moving. If one stopped, Mr. Lannister called out “Frantic” and if the ball wasn’t picked up within five seconds, the ball was out of play. The game ended either when there were six balls out of play – or the bell had rang.

It was an alternative to dodgeball – which Mr. Lannister knew some students had nightmares about – and everyone playing Frantic always seemed to have a good time with it.

“Spread out, everyone!” Mr. Lannister ordered to them.

“Could you not throw the tennis ball at my head this time?” Jon asked Pyp as they headed towards one side of the gym and Robb and Theon headed off in another direction. 

“I’m supposed to throw the ball, Jon. It’s the whole point of the game.”

“Not at my head,” Jon frowned, but Pyp just smiled. “I have a lot on my mind,” he then confessed for some reason and he knew he shouldn’t have, but he hadn’t been able to stop himself.

“Worrying about some test or paper is your own damn fault,” Pyp said with all of the understanding and sympathy Jon would expect from one of his best mates. “No one said you had to have an impossible senior year. We’re _seniors_ , Jon. This is our last chance to have stupid fun before we go off and are expected to be adults.” They both came to a stop along the back wall. “And yes, there will be keg parties and sorority girls in college, but we’ll be expected to get ours and our parents’ money’s worth in college. We can’t be that stupid all of the time.”

Jon smiled a little. “I’m looking at around twelve more years of school depending on what kind of doctor I decide I want to be.”

“Again. Your own damn fault,” Pyp shook his head. “Why the Hell do you want to become a doctor?”

“Money,” Jon shrugged with a smile because that obviously wasn’t the reason.

And Pyp smirked a little, too, because he knew it. “You’re right. I’ll leave your head alone. You need that. But a ball to your balls is fair game.”

…

Jon had to talk with Sansa. Urgently. He had to tell her that Robb was suspicious of her. Not of _them_ , but of her and that could be just a big a problem. He also had to tell her about her whistling. She could lie and tell her brother that she was a musician so of course she would be whistling, but she had to be aware of Robb’s suspicions so she could tell her brother the easy lie.

After gym class, he had his Level-4 Biology class, which was convenient because Sansa’s locker was right by his science classes. He changed as quickly as he could and then bolted from the locker room before anyone could stop him. Mr. Lannister stopped class eight minutes before the bell rang so they all had ample time to change back from their gym clothes into their regular clothes and Jon had plenty of time now.

But he sprinted, nonetheless.

He breathed with relief when he rounded the corner and there was Sansa, standing at her locker. Alone. She jumped when he practically threw himself against the lockers next to hers but seeing it was him, her smile was instant. All Jon wanted to do right then was lean in and give her a kiss, but that couldn’t be done yet. They really had to have the conversation of when – and how – they were going to tell Robb, but right now, they were still keeping a secret.

“Hi,” she let out a slight laugh at his abrupt arrival. “What’s going on?”

Jon took a moment to gulp in some air. “You were whistling.”

“What?” She rightfully looked confused at this statement.

“This morning, I guess you were whistling and Robb heard you and he’s convinced that you have a secret.”

“Because I was whistling?” She was frowning now.

“He’s lost his mind.”

“Clearly.” Sansa turned back to her locker, still frowning; obviously trying to remember exactly when she had been whistling and when had Robb seen – and heard – her do such a thing.

“I just wanted to let you know before he bombards you with questions,” Jon said. “You’re a musician. You whistle. It’s an easy lie.”

She looked at him again at that. “Why do I have to lie? Why can’t I just tell him that I was whistling because you and me are dating and I’m happy?”

Jon pushed himself from the locker he was leaning against and looked at her, a little stunned, if he was being honest. Yes, he knew they were going to tell Robb. He had _just_ been thinking about when they could tell him. Yet, Jon hadn’t planned on it being at this very moment. He thought he and Sansa would sit down and go over a game plan. Practice some theoretical conversations and rehearse all of Robb’s possible reactions.

“Don’t you want to tell him?”

“Of course I do,” Jon rushed to answer and assure her. He felt brave enough to reach over and take one of her hands in the crowded hallway. “I’ve been tired of sneaking around and we’ve only been doing it for a week. I want to be able to take you to Taco Bell in the daytime.”

Sansa smiled at that and he smiled at the sight. “Taco Bell? That’s next?”

“I figured we could buy the cravings pack of eight tacos and go to that drive-in movie theater,” Jon said and once he did, Sansa’s smile only grew wider and brighter. He was only joking – _half_ -joking – but Sansa’s smile showed him that she didn’t hate the sounds of that.

“That sounds like a perfect date.” He returned her smile and she looked down to his hand still holding hers. She lifted her eyes to his. “We have to tell him, Jon. The sooner, the better. We keep it a secret for too long and Robb will have good reason to be pissed off. We tell him now, he’ll be dramatic, sure, but he won’t be able to make it last forever.”

“I know,” Jon nodded in agreement. “I just have no idea how to tell him. He’s going to punch me. Whether we’re best friends or not, he’s going to punch me because I’m the guy kissing you and we all know how protective Robb is of you.”

“I never asked him to be protective of me.”

“But that’s how he is and you know it.”

Sansa was quiet for a moment, thinking; looking to his face. “I don’t want you to get punched because of me,” she then said too quietly for the loud hallway.

“It might be unavoidable.” He shrugged. “It’ll be fine.”

“It’s never fine when someone gets punched in the face, Jon,” she frowned at him for that and Jon couldn’t help but smile as she did. There was something – somehow – adorable about Sansa Stark’s frown. She released a great sigh. “My dad told me that we shouldn’t let Robb think we’re doing something wrong because we’re not.”

Jon felt his eyes widen slightly. “Your dad knows?”

“He figured it out and when he asked me about it… I can’t lie to my dad.”

“And he’s…” he paused. “He’s okay with you being with me?”

Sansa gave him a soft smile. “He said if I had to date anyone, he’s glad it’s you. He thinks you’re great.” Her smile grew a bit and as Jon seemed to blush from her father’s opinion. She knew how much Jon admired Mr. Stark and had always looked to the man as a father figure in his life. “How about… I’ll tell Robb I was whistling because I’m practicing for my recital constantly – in all forms – and tomorrow, you come over for one reason or another and we tell him then?”

Jon thought that over for just a moment before he nodded. He squeezed her hand because he couldn’t kiss her. “Tomorrow,” he agreed.

Sansa was right. The sooner, the better. And Robb couldn’t possibly stay mad at him forever; they had been best friends for way too long and hopefully, once his temper tampered down, Robb would think like his dad. If Sansa had to date anyone, Jon Snow was far from the worst guy. Hopefully, Robb would punch him once and that would be that.

…

Robb and Sansa decided to take a psychology class together; a fun elective they could both take together and use it to analyze members of their family.

Sansa was already sitting at her desk, her notebook open to a blank page and her pen at the ready, when Robb entered the class, coming right for his sister and his empty desk next to hers.

Today, they were going to be watching a documentary – _Cannibal Cop_ – and then, they would finish it tomorrow and begin their discussion. Grenn had taken this course last year and Sansa knew that this would make up a large portion of their final grade in the class.

“When you’re assigned the five-page paper that’s worth a quarter of your grade, be surprised,” Grenn had warned both Sansa and Robb.

Sansa gave her brother a smile as Robb plopped himself down. “Do you have a pen?” She asked.

“Yes, Sansa, I have a pen,” Robb rolled his eyes. “This isn’t my first class of the day and I _have_ been taking notes in my other ones today.”

“Well, if I didn’t ask, you would lean over during the movie and ask for one and I’m not missing a second of this today. Remember when Grenn told us.”

Robb’s book-bag was dropped on the floor and he fished out a pen and a notebook that had been rolled up so many times, it no longer laid flat. Sansa had to wonder what he always did with his school supplies. Each year, at the end of the summer, Catelyn and Ned took all of their kids to the store for fresh supplies for the fresh school year and Sansa admitted that she _loved_ shopping for school supplies. She took the colors of her folders, binder and spiral notebooks quite seriously. She also got a new planner every year and proceeded to write down every assignment and school event diligently inside.

Robb wasn’t a bad student by any means. He always managed As and Bs – and sometimes the occasional C – but he put forth the smallest amount of effort in his classes and it drove his parents absolutely mad. It drove Sansa crazy, too. Her brother was so smart and if Robb would actually apply himself, he could easily be a straight-A student, always on the honor roll.

Sansa admitted that sharing this psychology class together, she was prepared to drive Robb far over the finish line and get him to get himself a solid A.

“Hey,” Robb turned towards her just as the bell rang.

Sansa internally braced herself. She was grateful that Jon had found her and warned her about this already. She could expect Robb asking her about her whistling (and who knew whistling would be such a cause for interrogation?). Otherwise, she would freeze and possibly panic and Robb would be able to see it right away.

“You can tell me if something is going on with you. You know that, right?”

Sansa blinked at him. That wasn’t exactly what she had been expecting. Her brow furrowed. “Of course I know that, Robb,” she responded.

“And if you have a secret, you can tell me and I’ll keep it from mom and dad and everyone,” he continued.

This time, Sansa smiled faintly. “I know that, too, Robb.”

“Good,” he gave a nod and exhale. He then looked at her; studied her closely and Sansa could only hope that she looked absolutely casual despite the tangle of knots she felt inside of her under his stare. “So… do you want to tell me anything? As a sister to her big brother?”

For half a second, Sansa was actually going to tell him.

How would he react? They were in class and couldn’t explode. Maybe now would be the perfect time and place to tell him that she was dating his best friend. Would Jon be alright if she let the cat out of the bag? He actually might be relieved if she had just handled it without him but Sansa felt that telling Robb was something that they should do together; show Robb solidarity and that they were taking this relationship seriously and it wasn’t just some fool-around for either of them.

They _were_ taking this seriously, weren’t they? He introduced him to his mom so that had to be serious in Jon Snow’s mind. Was Sansa really doubting that either of them _weren’t_ taking this seriously?

She gave her brother a smile now. “Not that I can think of,” she finally replied. “I’m a bit nervous for my recital. More nervous than I’ve been for any other, for whatever reason. I’m practicing as much as I can.”

Sansa knew her brother well enough to know that Robb hadn’t been expecting her to say that. He had clearly been expecting her to say something else. What, exactly, did he think she was keeping from him? Pregnancy? A drug habit? Why did he and Jeyne always reach so far past the realm of anything Sansa would ever do?

Was dating a boy in secret that so far-fetched of Sansa to do? She knew she was always the responsible and mature one, but come on. She was still seventeen and she wished everyone would remember that.

Robb frowned a little and then managed to wipe it away to give her a smile instead. “Don’t be stupid, Sansa. You’re going to do great – just like you always do.”

Sansa smiled, too. “Thanks, Robb. Still, I can’t practice enough.” And then, for good measure, she whistled a quick stance from a random Chopin piece.

Robb smirked a little to himself and then shaking his head, he pulled himself back to sit straight at his desk.

“Alright, let’s begin!” The teacher, Mrs. Plumpton, stepped to the front of the class. “Now, before we begin the movie, I want to take a quick poll. And then tomorrow, after we finish the movie, I’ll take another poll to see if anyone’s opinion has changed. Now, who thinks that a person can be and should be punished for the thoughts they have?”

No one in the class raised their hands, but then, after a moment, a girl in the front did.

“What kind of thoughts?” She wondered.

“Does it matter?” Mrs. Plumpton asked.

“I think it does,” the girl nodded. “If someone knew in advance that another was going to commit a murder, shouldn’t that person be stopped? Or if they were going to do something horrible to a child?”

“But what if they never actually act upon their thoughts?” Mrs. Plumpton questioned.

The girl shook her head this time. “That wasn’t part of the original question,” she pointed out.

Two more hands raised, wanting to change their answers, and Mrs. Plumpton smiled.

Sansa was tempted to raise her hand as well, to change her initial answer, but she wasn’t sure. If someone had the most vile thoughts but never acted on them, that person shouldn’t be punished. It’s the person who _did_ act on their horrible thoughts that deserved punished; not the one who was able to reign themselves in.

But if a person did have horrible thoughts, wasn’t that cause for concern whether they acted on them or not?

Sansa already could feel her head begin to hurt. She and Robb signed up for psychology because they thought it would be fun, but Sansa wondered if her brain was truly meant for a class like this. She wondered what Jon’s thoughts on this would be. Would Jon be able to help her with this paper? He was so much smarter than her and she had a feeling she would need as much help as she could get.

“Now we have a debate!” Mrs. Plumpton said, obviously quite pleased. “Let’s begin.”

She started up the television and went to the switch on the wall to turn the lights off.

“Robb!” Sansa hissed when Robb folded his arms over his desk and laid his head down, and leaned over to stab him in his side with her pen. He just swatted her away. 

…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I love this chapter and I hope you enjoyed it! THANK YOU for reading!


	9. Chocolate Chip Cookies

…

When Mr. and Mrs. Poole got married, downtown Winterfell was going through a revitalization period and many old buildings were bought by developers and transformed. Several warehouses were turned into spacious loft apartments and Mr. and Mrs. Poole snatched one up as soon as they were able to. When she was pregnant with Jeyne, they had discussed moving out and buying a house somewhere in town, but truth be told, both of them loved their loft and didn’t truly have a desire to live anywhere else.

And when Mrs. Poole passed away, the last thing Mr. Poole wanted to do was move away from their home.

Robb had only been there a couple of times – to pick Sansa up when she had been over there, but he certainly had never been _there_ – spending significant time there past the front door. There were three bedrooms, a massive bathroom, and a huge open space for the living room, eating area and kitchen. Everything was hard wood floors with exposed brick walls and wooden ceiling beams.

Vayon Poole smiled when he opened the door and saw Robb standing there. It dropped a little when he saw the brown grocery bag in Robb’s arms. “You didn’t have to bring your own kitchen stuff, Robb,” he said, stepping back and holding the door open so Robb could step in.

“I didn’t feel right making a mess of your things, Mr. Poole. This is going to be a disaster.”

Vayon laughed at that. “I’ve always wondered where Jeyne gets her baking talents from. I certainly don’t have it and her mother didn’t either.”

“My mom seemed to pass it on to Sansa and no one else,” Robb smiled a little.

He hoped Vayon wouldn’t ask why Robb didn’t ask his mom or sister for help and instead, asked his daughter. That would be a _very_ good question that Robb didn’t have an answer to.

“Hi, Robb.”

Robb’s head whipped around to see Jeyne coming out of one of the bedrooms, smiling when she saw him. The Poole family also had a large Saint Bernard dog, Midas, who trotted out with Jeyne.

“Hey,” Robb managed to give her a smile. “I’ve brought the stuff.”

He was _not_ going to think about how cute she looked that afternoon. She was wearing dark skinny jeans and a white sweater with a pattern of blue and red hearts. Her dark hair was long and down and why the Hell would he ever think she was cute? She was dressed. Big deal, he reminded himself. _Everyone_ was dressed. He was turning so ridiculous and pathetic, he could hardly stand himself.

Maybe coming to the Poole loft to get a baking lesson from Jeyne wasn’t his brightest idea. This could even be worse than the time Bran assured them all that riding pillows down the roof was perfectly safe if they had enough padding down on the ground. One broken arm later and a never-ending lecture from Catelyn and Ned as they waited in the ER, Robb would learn not to listen to his smart little brother in regards to everything, but right now, looking at Jeyne, Robb would almost take another broken arm.

And like her father, Jeyne gave him a look for that. “We do have our own kitchen things, Robb.”

Vayon chuckled, closing the front door once again, and Robb followed Jeyne into the kitchen. An ESPN Classic was muted on the television – a college football game from the year before – and Vayon returned to the couch, Midas following after him.

Jeyne took the bag Robb had brought with him and set it aside. She already had everything they would need set up on the kitchen island counter, waiting for them.

“Hands,” she said, going to the kitchen sink. She washed her hands first and then stepped aside for Robb to do the same. “Do you remember what we set the oven to?” She asked.

“375,” Robb answered. “I’ll be able to cook with the recipe though, right?”

Jeyne smiled. “Yes. I was just testing you.”

“Don’t test me,” he frowned. “That’s reserved for Mrs. Knight. I’m here so you can _help_ me.”

Jeyne laughed at that and Robb was _not_ thinking about how the sound of her laugh made his body tense. He clearly needed to ask a girl out and hopefully make out with her; any girl other than Jeyne Poole because if his body was reacting to his sister’s best friend’s laugh, it was a sure sign that he needed to distract himself.

“Alright,” Jeyne took the stick of butter. “One cup of butter. Softened.” She took the proper amount and popped it into the microwave for a few seconds. “Now, measure out the flour, baking soda and salt into that small bowl and mix it up.”

The cookbook was propped open in front of him, turned to the proper chocolate chip cookie recipe – it was the same cookbook his mom had. Actually, his mom had many, _many_ cookbooks – Catelyn collecting them – but he recognized the one that Jeyne had open now as one of the ones of Catelyn’s she used the most.

She handed him a wooden spoon and Robb mixed the bowl together.

“Good,” she nodded after a moment and then taking the bowl, she set it aside and set a larger one down in front of him. “Alright. Now in this bowl, the butter and sugars and we’ll use the electric mixer. Let me see you measure out the sugars. And remember, Robb. _Packed_ brown sugar.”

Robb admitted to being proud of himself for not showing any kind of reaction to Jeyne’s words.

But why should he have a reaction to Jeyne Poole, his sister’s best friend, saying packed? And why was he making tightly packed brown sugar so sexual? What the Hell was the matter with him?

“Is that good?” he asked, holding out the measuring cup and again, he was proud of himself for keeping his voice from being too squeaky as he asked.

“Let’s see.” Jeyne took the measuring cup from him and managed to pack just a little bit more brown sugar. She smiled at him. “Good job, Robb,” she said and when she smiled at him, Robb _had_ to smile back at her.

So he did. How had he never noticed how pretty Jeyne’s smile was? How had he never noticed how pretty _Jeyne_ was? Was it only because she was Sansa’s best friend and for whatever reason, Robb’s mind had always put her in a “hands off” column? Was it because he has seen her in her Disney princess pajamas when she spent the night at the Stark house and she and Sansa would be squealing over pretty actors and singers on Pinterest and planning their imaginary weddings? Was it because he saw Jeyne through braces and acne and coming over in tears to see his mom because she had her first period and her dad didn’t know what to do and she needed help figuring out if she wants pads or tampons?

It might have been all of that. But there was something about knowing a girl for years and years and seeing just about everything about her and finding himself still wanting to know even more. That was something. That _meant_ something. And she wasn’t just Sansa’s best friend. She was Jeyne, too.

“Do you want to go out sometime?” The question fell from his mouth and he swore he could visibly see the individual words plop out onto the countertop.

Jeyne went completely still and looked at him. Robb couldn’t read her mind though. She glanced from the kitchen to the living room and holy shit. Robb had completely forgotten that her dad was sitting there, watching the football game. Had Vayon overheard this boy asking his daughter out? He wasn’t acting like he was and he was still on the couch, his back to them as he watched television.

He looked back to Jeyne and she was looking at him as well. He had never felt this nervous asking a girl out before. If Robb was good at anything in this life, it was talking to girls. His dad said Robb got it from him. Robb didn’t doubt that considering his dad painted his new wife a pink house to make sure she was happy.

But even Robb knew there was a difference between being a romantic and a ridiculous flirt.

He wondered if that was the only way Jeyne saw him. Or did she see him as nothing more than her best friend’s older brother? Robb realized, right then, how important it was to him that she saw him as something more just as he saw her as something more.

“Are you serious?” Jeyne finally asked.

That wasn’t necessarily a resounding “no”, but it did nothing for Robb’s confidence.

He tried to think of something witty to say from a book he had read, but nothing came to him. “Yeah, I am.”

The oven beeped suddenly – preheated to the right temperature – and they both jumped. Jeyne then laughed at their reactions and Robb smiled.

“I’d like that, Robb,” Jeyne nodded with a smile.

Robb almost asked her if she meant that, but he didn’t want to jinx it. He had asked her out, she said yes and that was that. Now, he just had to plan a date. And he had to tell Sansa. He had no idea how his sister would react. Would she be happy? Or would she be furious, knowing how many girls Robb went out with and how dare he for going after her best friend?

He wanted Sansa to be cool with this. He would have to tell her and he would have to assure her that he wasn’t going out with Jeyne just to date another girl. There was something about Jeyne Poole and he still couldn’t explain it but being around her was easy and comforting.

Like chocolate chip cookies.

…

“What are you doing?” Sansa asked with a laugh, having lifted her eyes from her notebook and looking to Jon, sitting next to her, watching something on his laptop with a smile.

Jon still smiled as he sat up a little in his chair. “Do you ever wish you could erase something from your mind so you could relive it again?” He asked.

“Our first kiss,” Sansa gave him a smile, making him grin.

“Obviously our first kiss, Sansa. I wish I could do that again for the first time every day. But I meant like reading a book or hearing a song.”

She thought it over for a moment because Jon was asking a serious question and it required a serious answer. “I wish I could hear Chopin’s Nocturne No.2 in E flat major again for the first time.”

“He’s your favorite, isn’t he?”

“Him and Bach. I can’t choose. Some days are Chopin. Some days are Bach.”

Jon smiled at that and she recognized that he wanted to lean over and kiss her right then. He couldn’t though because they were sitting at the table in the dining room of the Stark house. So all he could do was smile at her and Sansa smiled, too.

When Jon came over after school – and before dinner – Catelyn Stark didn’t even blink an eye.

“Hi, honey. Busy day at the infusion office?” She asked.

If it was, Lyanna usually called Catelyn, asking if she minded if Jon joined the Starks for dinner. Catelyn always told Lyanna that she did not have to call and Jon – and Lyanna – were always welcome for dinner, but Lyanna still always called. She hadn’t called today though. Not yet.

“Actually, Jon’s helping me with my psych homework,” Sansa answered before Jon could.

Jon knew that Sansa wanted to tell her mom like they had told his but they had to tell Robb first. They _had_ to. Jon meant what he said to Sansa. Sneaking around was starting to drive him crazy and it had only been a week. He wanted to kiss his girlfriend whenever he wanted to and wherever he damn well pleased.

He also meant when he told Sansa that he was crazy about her. Being crazy for a girl didn’t come around that often – especially at their age – so fuck Robb if he was going to be a baby about this and do something stupid like make Jon choose.

(Jon prayed that Robb wouldn’t make him choose.)

“Oh!” Sansa thought of something else. “And watching _The Sixth Sense_ again for the first time.”

Jon laughed. “Absolutely,” he agreed.

“What about you?”

“Hearing _The Weight_ for the first time. I love watching these reaction videos on YouTube of people hearing the song for the first time and I actually get jealous of them.” He then turned his laptop towards her and un-paused the video so she could watch a moment of it.

“That is so adorably dorkable,” Sansa teased but did so with a warm smile and twinkling eyes and Jon smiled, too. “Now help me with this,” she said, pushing her psych notebook towards him.

He really wasn’t helping her with her psych homework. He had never taken the class and though he was going to be taking all sorts of classes for his pre-med program in college, he already knew psych wouldn’t be one of them. He didn’t know if he had the mind for it or not and he didn’t know if he wanted to find out.

Jon studied the tic-tac-toe game in the corner of the page and after a moment, he made an ‘O’ in a space before pushing it back towards her.

“Do you want to go to the Homecoming dance next month with me?” He then asked her, completely sudden.

Sansa looked at him with complete surprise.

“I usually don’t go. I know we usually all just hang out as a group, watching a movie or something, but I figured, this year, I’m a senior and I have a beautiful girlfriend and we should go to the Homecoming dance together,” he said and finished it off with a shrug as if it was no big deal but Sansa wasn’t fooled.

She had never been asked to a high school dance. She had a feeling that after that whole Harry kissing her in freshman year and Robb having something to say about it kept boys away from asking her; _if_ any boys ever wanted to ask her to one of the school dances.

Suddenly though, she was quite glad no boy had asked her because Jon was the first boy to and she very much liked that Jon was the first.

“I would love to go to Homecoming with you,” she said quietly and Jon seemed to exhale a breath as if he had been holding it in for too long. She then smiled and Jon returned it.

Sansa felt a humming in her body as if she had just gotten a very mild shock of electrocution.

Homecoming with Jon. She couldn’t wait to tell her mom and they could go shopping for dresses. She wanted the most perfect homecoming dress. Should she go long or short? Homecoming was considered a more casual dance than prom so maybe she would go short and have fun with it. Yes, definitely a short dress. Something sparkly, for sure.

She was smiling now and couldn’t seem to stop.

“So, how do you want to do this?” He asked. “Tell Robb,” he then clarified.

“Oh. Well… I figured we’d just tell him.”

“Just like that?”

“Did you have a speech planned?” She then wondered.

“I figured I’d tell him that we’re dating and then brace myself for impact so just telling him is as good a plan as any,” Jon shrugged again.

“Robb will _not_ be punching you, Jon. He doesn’t own me – or you – and he has absolutely no say in who I date.” She said the words firmly – very firmly – and something about her tone made Jon begin to smile.

“You’re right. You’re right,” he agreed.

The door between the kitchen and dining room swung open and Arya strode in, chewing on a yellow apple and going right for Jon. She slapped down a piece of paper.

“Biology study guide. Check it for me?” She asked.

“Do you have a red pen I can use?” He asked with a grin. Arya slapped him up the back of the head and then plopped down in a chair across the table from him, chomping away. “What’s going on with you?” She then asked and Sansa’s eyes flew up to look at her.

“What do you mean?”

“Your face is super red.”

“It is?” Sansa lifted a hand to her cheek. It definitely was.

Arya looked at her for another moment but then her attention shot back to Jon when she saw him make a mark on the paper. “Which was that?”

“The human brain has four lobes. Not two.” Jon sat up. “One. Two. Three. Four.” He used his hand to gesture to each lobe on his own head.

Arya grumbled something under her breath. “You know what I think about a lot? Especially in this class? The first human to go to sleep. The first human who had the first human brain that was more human than monkey. He must have thought he was dying as his eyes began closing and he started to lie down. And then think about what happened eight hours later when he popped back up and realized he was still alive.”

“You think about this a lot?” Sansa asked.

“In biology,” Arya confirmed.

Jon smirked and marked another question, circling the right answer. “Maybe you should think about biology while in biology.”

“Thanks, _dad_ ,” Arya frowned before taking another bite of apple.

Sansa and Jon went still as they heard the front door open and then slam shut. They both craned their necks to see around the corner.

“I’m home!” Robb called out for all to hear. “And I’ve brought cookies!”

“Bring them in here!” Arya yelled out.

A moment later, Robb came through the living room, into the dining room. He paused when he saw Jon there and his brow furrowed. “Hey, man,” Robb said, setting the plastic container down right in front of Arya. “I didn’t see your car outside.”

“I parked up the street,” Jon said and then got to his feet. Sansa stood up as well. “Do you have a second?”

“Of course I do,” Robb nodded, looking down as Arya peeled the lid off the container, revealing the twelve chocolate chip cookies inside. “I don’t think they’ll kill anyone,” he then told her.

“I have a biology test tomorrow. Please give me death.” And with that, Arya took one of the cookies in her other hand still not holding her apple and bit off a massive mouthful.

Robb looked back to Jon and Sansa. “What’s going on? Did you kill someone? I’d have to go change my shoes if we have to drive to the woods. Who was it?”

“No one’s been murdered. Yet,” Jon added.

Sansa couldn’t stop herself from rolling her eyes, but she found herself taking a slight step forward so she was standing in front of Jon; protecting him.

“Robb, I’m just going to say this and whatever you do next, just remember that no matter what the reaction is, there will be consequences.”

“What the hell are you talking about?” Robb frowned at her.

“Jon just asked me to Homecoming next month and I said yes and also, we’ve had two dates-”

“Two?” Jon interrupted.

“I’m counting dinner with your mom and studying afterwards as one and then Arby’s as the second,” she informed him before looking back to her brother.

Robb was staring at them, not saying anything, but he had gone very still. Arya’s eyes were bouncing back and forth between her brother and sister – and to Jon – and she grabbed another cookie. This was much better than studying for her biology test.

“And Jon and I are going to continue to kiss one another and date one another no matter what you say about it,” Sansa firmly finished.

Robb stared at her, not saying anything or moving, and Sansa knew that he would need a minute to process. That was okay. He could take a few minutes if he needed. Sansa moved to Arya and took a cookie for herself. She took a small bite and let the flavor settle in her mouth.

“These are really good, Robb. You’ve been practicing,” Sansa smiled before taking another bite. She took another cookie and held it out towards Jon for him to take.

Jon looked to Robb, who still hadn’t said a word, and slowly edged around him, coming to Sansa and Arya and taking the cookie from Sansa.

“Should I do something?” Jon whispered as if not wanting to disturb Robb; his eyes still watching him.

“He might be like this for a while,” Sansa said. “He went like this when he walked in on mom and dad doing… well, doing _that_ and dad told Robb that they still did _that_.”

“He didn’t talk for at least a full day after,” Arya smirked.

“It was very traumatizing for him, Arya,” Sansa reminded her.

Jon remembered when that happened. He had worried that his best friend would never be the same after. Robb still wouldn’t look in the general direction of his parent’s bedroom as he walked down the hallway to his own room.

“So, biologically speaking, which brain lobe is malfunctioning for Robb right now?” Arya wondered.

…

My favorite reaction video

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much!!


	10. Fried Chicken

…

Robb had moved to sit down, but he still didn’t speak.

Sansa rolled her eyes at her older brother and went to go play piano in the living room. Jon and Arya remained at the dining room table and Jon began helping Arya prepare herself for her biology test tomorrow. Twenty minutes later, they all heard the backdoor open.

“We’re home!” Catelyn called out and seconds later, both Bran and Rickon came tearing through the swinging door, Catelyn having gone to pick both boys up from hockey practice. She followed them out a moment later and smiled when she saw Arya, Jon and Robb at the table and heard Sansa playing. “Any requests for dinner? Arya, what are those? You’ve ruined your appetite.”

With that, Catelyn came around the table to close the lid of the cookie container and take it away.

“Robb made them and then he fell into shock,” Arya explained as simply as she could, looking to her older brother, giving a smirk.

Catelyn held the container so _none_ of the children could ruin their appetites and at Arya’s words, she looked to her son. Sure enough, Robb was sitting there, staring into the nothingness. The last time he had had that particular expression, Ned had forgotten to lock their bedroom door and Robb hadn’t thought to knock.

It really was Robb’s fault, in Catelyn’s opinion.

But what he saw sent him into a near-catatonic state for nearly a full day. Catelyn wanted to take him to the hospital. Ned said he would snap himself out of it and he wasn’t the first kid to walk in on their parents in the middle of such an activity. She stopped worrying when he went into the kitchen and got himself a bag of potato chips – so at least he was eating. She just thought that perhaps her son would be mute the rest of his life now. But no. Sometime the next day, he started talking again.

“We’ll never speak of it again,” were his first words.

So what could have possibly happened in the twenty minutes that she had left to pick up Bran and Rickon for Robb to enter this state again?

“Yep,” Bran said as he waved a hand in front of his unresponsive brother’s face. “He’s in shock for sure.”

Sansa was still playing the piano so Catelyn looked to Jon and Arya. “What happened?” She asked them.

It looked as if Jon squirmed a bit in his chair, glancing to Robb, before looking to Catelyn. Arya didn’t say anything and looked to Jon, waiting for him to explain. Catelyn looked to him as well. It was obvious that this had something to do with him, but what could have Jon done that would cause Robb to react this way?

“Jon and I are dating and we’re going to Homecoming together,” Sansa suddenly said from over her piano playing, her fingers never stopping their quick movements over the keys.

“Really?” Catelyn looked to her daughter and then back to Jon.

Jon seemed to be bracing himself. He was stiff and staring at her, preparing himself for her to have some kind of reaction close to her son’s. Catelyn found that to be highly ridiculous. Why would she have a reaction like that? She had known Jon since he and Robb were in the first grade, for goodness sake. She _knew_ what kind of boy Jon Snow was and if she wanted any teenage boy to date her beloved Sansa, Jon would certainly be on the list; perhaps the only boy’s name on said list. She was almost frowning at Jon now though for thinking that she would think something else.

“So, _that’s_ why Robb is like this?” Catelyn looked back to her son, truly frowning now. She waved her own hand in front of Robb’s face and then sighed heavily. “Ridiculous,” she muttered. “Bran, Rickon! Put your things upstairs! If your father trips over anything and breaks his neck, I’ll never forgive you! Jon, will you be staying for dinner?” Jon opened his mouth to speak but Catelyn took it upon herself to speak for him. “You’re staying. Arya, how ruined is your appetite?”

“Pretty ruined,” Arya said, her eyes focused on the homework in front of her.

“Jon, help me in the kitchen,” Catelyn said before turning and heading back through the swinging door.

Jon looked to Arya, but she was looking down at her study guide, not at all acting like Jon was about to be murdered in the kitchen. Slowly, he stood up and looked to Sansa. She was bent over the side of the bench, digging through the basket of sheet music that was on the floor next to the piano. But at her mother’s words, she lifted her head as well and Jon looked to her. He noted that she didn’t seem overly concerned either.

She gave a smile. “Go.”

Jon wanted to stride into the living room and kiss her – he supposed he could do that now and it might be his last act as someone who was alive – but he didn’t want to keep Mrs. Stark waiting. If she wanted to murder him, she probably wanted to do it before her husband got home so Mr. Stark could help her with the body. He had known Mrs. Stark for many years and she was a woman who liked to plan ahead.

With a deep breath, he turned towards the swinging door and marching forward, he bravely passed through it. Honestly, he expected a cleaver to find a home in his neck within a second but instead, Mrs. Stark was standing at the small counter next to the refrigerator, pulling the takeout menus from the drawer that the family had collected over time.

“I honestly don’t feel like cooking and with Arya and her dinner of cookies, I suppose one day of all of us being bad won’t kill us,” she said. “Do you have a taste for anything in particular?”

Considering Jon felt as if he was in the process of swallowing his tongue, he didn’t really know if he’d be able to actually eat anything for dinner. At his silence, Mrs. Stark lifted her head and Jon wondered what his expression was because whatever it was, it made her smile.

“How long have you and Sansa been dating?” She asked.

Finally, Jon pried his mouth open and forced words to come out. “A week. Since Pyp’s party last weekend. It just… it just was one of those things that happened but it made perfect sense while it was happening.”

Mrs. Stark was still smiling and Jon didn’t think it was the smile of a woman about to commit a heinous crime. She was smiling as if she actually liked what she was hearing.

He had always liked Mrs. Stark. The woman had never been nothing but nice to him in all of the years that he had known him and she had never seemed to mind her son’s best friend sometimes spending so much time at their house instead of his own. She understood that his mom worked and children needed supervision and took the task up without ever complaining about the extra kid in addition to her own.

But that didn’t mean that Mrs. Stark didn’t intimidate him. He knew that that came with respecting someone.

“That’s very sweet, Jon,” she then commented. “It was a bit of a surprise just a minute ago but honestly, the more I think about it, you and Sansa just make sense.”

Jon would have asked her to elaborate on that but he didn’t and she didn’t.

“And don’t worry about Robb. You know how he can be,” she continued. “He gets the dramatics from his father’s side.”

Her cell phone on the island began to ring and Jon smiled to himself when he heard the song blaring. The Stark kids were always grabbing their mom’s cell and changing the ring; at least once a week and for whatever reason – maybe she didn’t know how to – Catelyn didn’t change it no matter the song. This week’s ring was _bloody valentine_ by Machine Gun Kelly.

“Hi, dear,” Mrs. Stark answered and then listened. “Oh, you read my mind! That sounds perfect!” She looked away from the phone to look to Jon. “Tell everyone that Mr. Stark is bringing home fried chicken for dinner.”

Jon nodded and turned, leaving the kitchen again for the dining room.

“Still alive,” Arya noted, still at the table.

“Your dad’s bringing home fried chicken.”

Arya practically squealed at that and raced from the table. “Dad! Mac and cheese!” She shouted, storming herself into the kitchen before her mom could hang up.

“Chicken!” Bran and Rickon, both on the floor of the living room, playing a video game, heard Jon’s announcement and went racing after their sister without even pausing their game. Buckets of fried chicken were far more important to the both of them than a video game. “Biscuits! Extra biscuits!” “Extra crispy, dad!” They both shouted as they went.

Robb was still sitting, unmoved, in his chair and Jon did his best to not roll his eyes at his best friend.

Okay. That was it. Robb had reached past the point of being ridiculous. Yes, his best friend was dating his sister but did he realize how beautiful Sansa was? Of course Robb did. He had gone after guys before for trying to make a move on her. So what? Did he want his best friend with his sister or one of the other randy bastards that went to their high school?

Jon _really_ liked Sansa – and not just because she was insanely beautiful – and she and Mr. Stark were right. They weren’t doing _anything_ wrong no matter how dramatic Robb was going to be about this.

He came into the living room, pausing the video game on the way, and Sansa gave him a smile, sliding across the bench even as her fingers never stopped moving over the piano keys, and Jon sat down next to her.

“Your official page turner is here,” he gave her a smile. “Just tell me when.”

Sansa smiled, almost laughing. “You truly are the best at it,” she gave a nod.

Jon listened to her play and he recognized the Chopin piece he played on YouTube a few nights ago. “This is for your recital,” he stated rather than asked. Sansa smiled at that, clearly pleased that he recognized it and remembered that.

“It is.”

“When is it?”

“Next weekend at my piano teacher’s house. She usually gets a larger space at her church for recitals but for this one, she wanted something a bit more intimate for her students and families. She has the most beautiful grand piano and she already promised us she will have plenty of dessert goodies for after.”

“Would I be able to come?” Jon asked. “Would you want me there?”

Sansa’s fingers stopped and slipped off the keys. She turned on the bench towards him. “Of course I want you there. I honestly didn’t know how to ask you to come though.”

“Alright. This is what you should say. You should start with my name.”

She looked at him for a moment and then began to smile. “Jon.”

Jon gave a nod. “I would really like you to come to my recital next weekend.” Sansa’s smile grew and Jon waved his hand, signaling for her to continue.

Sansa let out a laugh. “I would really like you to come to my recital next weekend,” she recited.

“Will you please come to my recital next weekend?” He finished.

“Will you please come to my recital next weekend?” Sansa was laughing more and Jon gave a grin.

“ _Of course_ I’ll come to your piano recital, Sansa,” Jon smiled and her eyes were dancing at him. He lifted his hands and for the first time, out in the open of the Stark living room, he kissed her.

“I asked Jeyne out!”

Jon and Sansa both jumped at the sudden exclamation and they turned their heads. Robb had moved – _finally_ – and had stood from the chair, turning towards them both.

“What are you talking about?” Sansa frowned a little, her brother’s words registering in her mind.

“Just today, earlier at her place while we were baking those cookies, I asked her out,” Robb said. “You date my best friend? I date yours!”

Jon sighed heavily. He was so relieved that Robb was being mature about all of this. He made up his mind immediately though. He was not siding between his girlfriend and his best friend.

“What are we? Five?” Sansa stood up suddenly and slid away from the bench to stand, facing her brother with her arms crossed over her chest. “I did something so you have to do it, too? Are you serious right now? You can’t go out with Jeyne.”

“I asked her before I found out about…” Robb sputtered, struggling for a word and gestured a hand back and forth between Jon and Sansa. “This abomination.”

Okay, maybe Jon wasn’t going to not take sides.

“Robb, you’re talking out of your ass,” he said before he could necessarily stop himself from saying that.

“Would you rather me date Pyp or Theon or someone like that?” Sansa asked.

“Why do you have to date _any_ of my friends? What the fuck, Sansa?”

“Robert!” Catelyn snapped from the kitchen.

“Sorry, mom!” Robb called back but was still staring at Sansa. “Why do you have to date one of my friends?” He asked her again, his voice not quite as shouting for the rafters.

“So, we’re just going to forget that you’re apparently dating _my_ best friend? Fine. I’m dating Jon because he is the sweetest guy I have ever met. He’s kind and funny and he doesn’t look at me like he’s ready to shove his tongue down my throat and hump my leg. When I talk, he listens and he’s actually interested in me and not this.” She swept a hand over her chest. “And I don’t need your permission to have feelings for someone!”

Sansa was breathing heavily and Jon could see how stiff her body was as her anger surrounded her. Robb stood and they stared at one another. Jon wondered what he would do if they went after one another.

Stark sibling fights were legendary. For a time, Catelyn didn’t keep throw pillows on any piece of furniture because the children were always so quick to grab one and smack one of their siblings in the face with them. A few lamps had been broken over the years; a few spots in various walls had to be fixed after someone’s head or shoulder, foot or fist had accidentally gone through the plaster.

When their children fought – and it turned violent – neither Mr. or Mrs. Stark hesitated in disciplining the guilty parties but they also knew that having five children, it was _impossible_ to keep them from fighting. Mr. Stark told stories of him and his brothers growing up, fighting with and torturing one another.

“Gets you ready for the real world,” he said, but he did have his limits.

People would meet her and not expect it but Sansa had gotten into a few of these fights as well and she had a reputation. She bit. She had actually bitten Jon once – by accident – when he had to pull her and Robb apart during a fight they had over what was better. _Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure_ or _Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey_. Seriously. Sansa had been on top of Robb and Robb had called out for help. Jon had grabbed Sansa from around the waist, hauling her off, but Robb had taken the opportunity to start fighting back now that his sister was somewhat at the disadvantage.

And that’s when Sansa’s teeth came out. She had thought she was biting Robb but instead, it had been Jon’s hand and it had hurt – to put it mildly.

Jon stood up from the piano bench, ready to intervene – reluctantly. He just didn’t feel like getting kicked or bitten as collateral damage today.

“And what about you?” Sansa asked, her glare set on her brother. “Why did you have to ask _my_ best friend out? Work your way through every other girl in the school?”

Robb shook his head. “It’s not like that and you know it.”

“No, I don’t know anything! I know that you date a different girl every weekend and now, you asked Jeyne out and you are _not_ going out with her and forgetting about her on Monday!”

“Well, you are not going to go out with Jon anymore!” Robb snapped back.

“She is, Robb,” Jon said.

“I am, Robb. We’re getting Taco Bell and going to the drive-in theater and we’re going to Homecoming and tomorrow morning, Jon is going to meet me at my locker and he’s going to walk me to my first period class and he’s going to hold my hand while doing it!”

Jon found himself smiling at just the idea of that but it wiped from his face quickly when Robb’s eyes moved to his face. Robb was his best friend and Jon didn’t want him to be pissed at him. But he didn’t want to stop dating Sansa either and please, Robb. _Please_ , Jon spoke silently to him, hoping Robb could read his mind.

Robb stared at Jon and then he looked back to his sister.

“Jeyne’s a big girl. If she knows my reputation or thinks that I _have_ a reputation, and still said that she wants to go out with me, there’s nothing you can do about it.”

The two were silent as they stared at one another and Jon slowly edged himself closer to both of them. He could deal with a bite or kick if it kept these two from murdering one another.

“If you do anything to hurt Jeyne, we are going to have a problem between you and me for a _long_ time, Robb,” Sansa finally spoke.

“And if either of you put me in the middle of you two and make me choose between my sister and best friend, we’re going to have a _big_ problem,” Robb responded to that.

They stared at one another minute and Jon looked back and forth between them, holding his breath.

The kitchen door swung open then and Rickon strolled in with a glass of water.

“Mom told me to wait but I don’t care if you’re done or not,” he informed them all and then pushing Robb aside so he wasn’t standing in front of the television, he sat down and un-paused his video game.

Sansa’s cell phone began to ring and she went to the dining room where she left it. “It’s Jeyne,” she informed them all and then taking it, she went through the living room to the front door, going out onto the front porch for some privacy.

Jon and Robb looked at one another and Jon couldn’t help but wince slightly as if preparing himself for a fist.

“What the Hell, man?” Robb noticed and frowned at him. “You hurt Sansa, punching you will come then.”

He turned and collapsed back onto the couch, kicking his feet up and resting them on the coffee table. After another moment – as if testing to see if Robb was telling the truth – Jon lowered himself into one of the armchairs; not Mr. Stark’s though. No one sat in his armchair except for him.

“We were never going to keep it a secret from you,” Jon said, leaning forward. “We were just waiting for the right moment to tell you. ”

“I wanted you to date someone the complete opposite of Dany but Sansa? Really?”

Robb stared at him and he was clearly doing his best to keep himself from smiling. And seeing it, Jon felt like he could breathe again and he began to smile as well.

“It’s the blonde, isn’t it?” Robb continued. “You definitely have a type, Snow.”

“Sansa’s a redhead,” Jon reminded him because Robb clearly had forgotten.

“She needs to go back to it,” Robb said, his eyes going to the television to watch Rickon’s video game.

Jon didn’t say anything but he didn’t disagree. He wished Sansa would go back to her red hair. He thought she looked beautiful with the blonde. Sansa would be beautiful if her hair was any color in the world but Sansa just was _supposed_ to have red hair.

And he didn’t want to admit to anyone, especially Sansa, that sometimes, he looked at Sansa with her blonde hair and it reminded him so much of Dany, it scared him. He didn’t want to admit that. After all, it was just hair and Sansa was still Sansa no matter what color hers was.

…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you ver much for reading! I attempt humor while writing this story but I don't consider myself a very funny writer so I just hope some are amused with these chapters. Thank you!


	11. Mini Blueberry Muffins

…

“I don’t want you to be mad at me,” Jeyne said from the other end of the phone. “Are you mad at me?”

“Of course I’m not,” Sansa’s response was immediate. She sat on the top step of the front porch and wished she had grabbed her coat on the way out. Every night seemed like it was colder than the last. “I just don’t want Robb pulling the usual crap he pulls with other girls and I’ll never forgive him if he does that to you.”

Sansa knew that Jeyne knew what she was talking about. Sansa and Jeyne had been best friends for so many years now and Jeyne was an extended part of the Stark family; just like how Jon was. And Jeyne had seen all of the girls Robb had gone out with only to move onto the next within a few days.

If Jeyne knew that – and she did – Sansa told herself that she shouldn’t care if Jeyne wanted to go out with Robb. Jeyne was capable of making her own decisions and more than that, Jeyne was her own person who knew what she wanted to do. And apparently, she wanted to go out on a date with Robb.

Sansa knew there wasn’t much she could do about it. She supposed it _would_ make her a little hypocritical if she had a problem with her best friend dating her brother while she was currently dating her brother’s best friend. Just thinking of it now, she began to smile a little. It was a situation she would see on some sitcom.

“I don’t think he will,” Jeyne said to Sansa’s statement. “I mean… yes, he’s been a bit of a serial dater ever since he hopped on the puberty train, but… there is still a very long line of girls at our school who would more than happy be his girlfriend for a couple of days. I think he knows that I’m not one of those girls. I hope he knows.”

“He knows,” Sansa said.

Robb could be a lot of things but some teenage guy who just blatantly used girls for his advantage? Not Robb. He dated a lot of girls but that was because the girls wanted to date him and knew that it wouldn’t last long. He would never purposely ask Jeyne out if he knew that Jeyne wasn’t one of those girls. She could be aggravated with him right now but Sansa still knew her brother.

“I have something to confess to you, too,” Sansa said while exhaling a sigh. She then let out the slightest laugh. “Do you know that guy I was telling you about?”

“You didn’t actually tell me _anything_ about that guy,” Jeyne reminded her.

“Well… it’s Jon. I’m dating Jon.” She said it in one big breath. “Jon Snow,” she then clarified even though she didn’t have. There was only one Jon they knew who would make any sense in this particular situation.

“What?” Jeyne couldn’t help but exclaim, shocked. “Since when?”

“Since the night of Pyp’s party,” Sansa said with a smile but a blush, too.

“You slut!” Jeyne let out with a laugh and Sansa began to laugh, too.

“My dad’s bringing fried chicken home for dinner tonight. Do you want to come over?” Sansa asked.

Jeyne hesitated. “My dad had to take a last minute overnight trip to Long Lake and you know how Midas is.”

“Bring him,” Sansa didn’t hesitate in telling her.

The Stark family was a dog family who was – unfortunately – between dogs. It seemed like most families, once they found a breed of dog they loved, that was the breed they generally stayed with and for the Starks, they were a Siberian Husky family; a perfect breed for the cold weather of the North.

Grey Wind, their last, had to be put to sleep nearly four months ago; a growth on his spleen that had started to bleed out internally and nothing could be done. Ned and Catelyn had put themselves on the list with their usual Siberian Husky breeder for a puppy from the next litter but that wouldn’t happen for a couple more months and until then, every Stark felt that their home was just a little emptier.

Sansa knew that having Midas, the Saint Bernard, over for the next couple of hours would make everyone happy. (Whenever Jon brought Ghost over, they never wanted the dog to leave again.)

“Alright,” Jeyne agreed. “Midas and I will be there in a few minutes. And after dinner, you are telling me _everything_ , Sansa. I’m not letting you off the hook.”

Sansa heard her best friend smile from over the phone and she smiled, too. “I promise. I will. And you’ll tell me about you and Robb?”

“There’s nothing to tell. I… I _do_ like him, Sansa. I’ve had a little crush on him for a while but he was your brother and I just always did my best to pretend it wasn’t there at all. I didn’t want you to be mad at me.”

“I am not mad, Jeyne. I swear. And he better plan something awesome for your first date.”

After she and Jeyne hung up – with Jeyne and Midas on the way over – Sansa stayed sitting outside for another minute or so. Her dad should be home soon and she hoped he had brought enough food with him. It was a full house in the Stark home that night.

Well, that was that. She and Jon were out in the open now. Both of their families knew and by tomorrow, all of their friends would know, too. There was no need to hide anything. As she told Robb, she and Jon could now walk together in the hallways, holding hands and even giving quick kisses at lockers or outside classrooms – if that was something Jon wanted to do.

  
Sansa wasn’t a _huge_ fan of public displays of affection. Some couples making out in the hallways just took it too far and Sansa had no desire to see the tongues of her classmates as they kissed one another. But holding hands with her boyfriend? Sansa would _love_ to do that.

Would Jon want to hold hands with her in the hallway as they walk to their classes?

It seemed like even when she didn’t want to, Sansa couldn’t help but think of Jon’s ex-girlfriend. She remembered how Jon and Daenerys were in the halls together; constantly holding hands and touching and making out in full view of anyone. Sansa had always avoided ever looking at them when she saw them in the middle of one of their displays.

Did Jon want to do those things with her? Would he be alright if Sansa didn’t want it to be _that_ open?

She sighed to herself and still not going inside, she pulled her phone back in front of her and began mindlessly scrolling through Instagram. Jeyne had posted a picture of Robb over earlier, grinning and posing as he pulled a tray of chocolate chip cookies from the oven. Sansa smiled and hit the heart and then continued scrolling through her feed.

The front door opened behind her and she looked over her shoulder, smiling when she saw that it was Jon.

“Sorry. I didn’t mean to abandon you in there,” she gave him a smile as he came to sit down next to her.

“Don’t apologize. Still alive,” Jon smiled, too. “Everything okay with Jeyne?”

“Mm-hmmm,” she nodded and set her phone down on the other side of her. “And I really don’t have a leg to stand on if I _did_ want to cause a fuss. After all, I’m dating Robb’s best friend.”

Jon didn’t say anything to that but his arm wrapped around her lower back and Sansa smiled, feeling her face warm, as she leaned in close to him.

“Do you want to do Taco Bell and the drive-in tomorrow night or Saturday night?” He asked.

“Very big decision,” she smiled and Jon smiled, too. She picked up her phone once more and went to the website for the Winterfell Drive-In Theatre. “Okay. So Friday night, they are showing _Grease_ and on Saturday, they are showing _Jaws_.” She and Jon looked at one another and at the same time, they both said, “ _Jaws_.”

Jon’s smile stretched into a grin and he leaned in, kissing her on the forehead. Sansa’s eyes slipped closed and Jon moved his lips down then to kiss the bridge of her nose. Sansa felt her heart thumping quickly in her chest both from the sweetness and the anticipation. And then – finally – Jon’s lips met hers softly.

She loved kissing Jon; absolutely loved it. She loved romance movies and reading those somewhat trashy romances that Jeyne had in boxes beneath her bed and like most girls, she had envisioned the kisses her, herself, would get one day. The kiss with Harry her freshman year had hardly counted; a meeting of lips for just a few seconds. No, her first kiss was with Jon and it was _everything_ she had ever imagined a first kiss to be. It shouldn’t have surprised her. Jon Snow had very lovely lips.

He kissed her so soft and so sweet and no matter how gentle it was, Sansa always felt like she couldn’t breathe afterwards for at least a minute.

Tonight was no exception. Jon pulled his lips back and Sansa blinked her eyes open, looking into his. They both shared a smile and Sansa leaned in, kissing the bridge of his nose because she wanted to. That made Jon laugh and she beamed a smile at him.

They both turned their heads when a car came to a stop at the curb in front of the Stark house. Midas had his head sticking out of the front passenger window of Jeyne’s car, the dog panting and looking as if he was smiling.

“Midas!” Jon exclaimed like he had just seen the actual Santa Claus.

Sansa laughed as Jon hurried off the steps and went to go down the front path to Jeyne’s car so he could let the Saint Bernard out. And then from inside the house, she heard Rickon yell, “Midas is here!”, seconds before the door was ripped open and everyone – including Catelyn – streamed from inside.

Midas was barking now as Jon let him out of the car and he began running around the front yard. Jeyne was laughing as she got out of the car, watching them, and Sansa stood up to go and greet her. Catelyn had come to a stop next to Sansa, watching Jon, Robb, Arya, Bran and Rickon playing with Midas and she sighed.

“We really need a dog again,” Catelyn said what everyone in the family already knew.

“Is it alright that Jeyne brought him? Her dad had to go to Long Lake at the last minute for work and you know how Midas can be when everyone leaves him in the same day,” Sansa told her mom. She then looked back to Jeyne and now, Robb had left the dog to come to her, Robb saying something that made Jeyne smile.

“Of course it is, sweetie,” Catelyn smiled at her. “Jeyne!” She then called out. “Did you bring an overnight bag? You better have brought an overnight bag because you and Midas are staying!”

…

Sansa rode with Robb every morning but with Jeyne having spent the night – Catelyn nor Ned wanting her to stay by herself in the Poole loft with her dad gone though she had done it before – Robb went with Jeyne in her car to help her get Midas back home before school and Jon picked Sansa up.

“Happy Friday!” She exclaimed happily and handed him a package of Little Debbie blueberry mini muffins.

“Thank you,” Jon grinned, happily taking them, and then leaned across the console, giving her a kiss.

Sansa buckled herself in and tore open her own package open as Jon held his between his teeth as he reversed from the driveway. She popped a muffin into her mouth.

“How’d you sleep?” Jon asked as he ripped open his own package.

The question made her smile. “Very well, thank you. How about you?”

“Ghost was pissed at me when I got home and smelled Midas all over me. For my betrayal, he ignored me and slept in my mom’s room,” Jon said and then popped a muffin into his mouth. “He’s a bed hog but it was weird not having him next to me. He forgave me this morning when I took him for an extra-long walk.

Sansa laughed and helped herself to another muffin.

She looked out the window as a sudden thought rushed into her mind; of sleeping next to Jon in bed. It made her feel _very_ warm beneath her coat and sweater she wore that day. She and Jon were nowhere near that place yet. She knew she wasn’t ready for that and yet, the thought was in her mind and lingered there.

He had lost his virginity to Daenerys. They had lost theirs together. Did they only have sex that one time? Or were there so many more times after that? Had he loved it? Did he _miss_ it?

She sighed heavily before she could stop herself.

“Are you alright?” Jon asked.

Sansa turned her head back to him. “I am. Just thinking about my psych class today,” she said and that wasn’t necessarily a lie because in addition to thoughts on Jon and his ex-girlfriend, she was thinking about her classes that day and her piano practice she had after school that afternoon. “We’re going to finish that documentary and Mrs. Plumpton will insist on having a discussion about it afterwards.”

“And you don’t want a discussion?”

“I just think I have thoughts about it and if she asks, I already know I won’t be able to explain myself.”

“What are your thoughts?” Jon glanced to her before back to the road. He popped another muffin into his mouth and Sansa took one of her own, taking a small nibble instead of a full bite.

“I think if we condemn one man for his thoughts, no matter how awful those thoughts are, it’s a slippery slope that no one in our society is equipped to handle. And if we do decide as a society that we should police thoughts, it all comes back to that question, who decides what’s awful and what’s not?”

“I would think kidnapping women, killing them and eating them is pretty awful,” Jon commented.

“Obviously, but I’m talking about… that fleeting thought everyone has. I wish I could punch that person in the face. That’s obviously not a good thing to do but it’s something people think nonetheless.” Sansa turned a little more towards him. “Does that mean that every person with that thought and _never_ acting on it should be condemned?”

“No,” Jon’s answer was immediate and Sansa felt a relief she didn’t really understand. He thought of something. “Dr. Leonard McCoy said something pretty pertinent to this.”

“Who’s Dr. Leonard McCoy?”

“ _Star Trek_ – the original series. Don’t worry. We’ll get to that,” he said and Sansa took another nibble of muffin, hiding a laugh. Her boyfriend was such an adorable dork. “He said to Captain Kirk, Jim you’re no different than anyone else. We all have our darker side. We need it. It’s half of what we are. It’s not really ugly. It’s human.”

Sansa was quiet, thinking on that for a moment, finishing the rest of her muffin. She reached down and pulled her phone from her messenger bag. “Can you say that one more time?” She asked as she opened up the notes so she could type this down for class.

After she was done typing, she took note of the song playing and she looked at the screen of the Sirius radio to see what it was. “It Makes No Difference” by The Band.

“I like this one,” Sansa said, putting her phone away.

“Everyone with working ears likes this one,” Jon teased and she thumped him on the arm with her fist. “Hey! Dark thoughts. Control yourself.” He laughed when Sansa thumped him again.

A few minutes later, Jon pulled them into the high school parking lot and he found a spot. They got out of the car, Jon popping his last mini muffin into his mouth as Sansa made sure she had her trash – Jon’s car was spotless and she wouldn’t be the one to mess it up in any way – and she slung her bag on.

As they crossed the parking lot towards the front doors, Jon took hold of her hand and a warmth immediately swept across Sansa despite the somewhat cold breeze blowing that morning.

It wasn’t like the movies or television shows when two characters showed up at school together, holding hands and dating one another. No one looked. No one whispered. No one cared. And still holding her hand, Jon stopped them off at his locker first where he dropped his stuff off and got his things needed for the first couple of periods and then, taking her hand again, they went to Sansa’s locker next.

“Speaking of dark thoughts and punching people in the face,” Jon muttered to himself.

Sansa heard and looked to him, but he was looking ahead and she followed his eyes. Ahead, there was Daenerys, standing outside of a classroom and talking to a guy but then, as if she could feel Jon’s eyes on her, she turned her head and looked right at them. Sansa suddenly overcame with the desire to hide. The girl’s purple eyes flashed and she saw Jon and Sansa holding hands. _She_ cared. And the look she set on Sansa told her that Daenerys cared very much.

This time, instead of warmth, Sansa felt a distinct cold go down her back. Right now, Jon’s ex-girlfriend was looking at her and her hand holding his and Sansa got the distinct feeling that Daenerys _hated_ her.

“She looks furious,” Sansa said without even really realizing that she had.

“It’s her bitch default,” Jon said and he sounded furious, too. “Come on.” He tugged on Sansa’s hand, turning down the hallway and continuing on to her locker.

Looking ahead, they saw Theon leaning against the locker next to Sansa. He was reading a piece of paper in his hands and when he saw them coming down the hall, he pushed himself up.

“Thank God!” Theon waved his piece of paper. “Snow, I need your help. Robb told me that you and Sansa would be getting here soon,” he then said to answer the question neither of them had asked as to how he knew to find Jon at Sansa’s locker.

“What’s going on?” Jon asked, letting go of Sansa’s hand and taking the paper from Theon. “Don’t you have English first period?”

“Yes, Jon. In ten minutes. You have nine minutes to help me.”

“Why, even after being strangled, will Desdemona not name Othello as her murderer and instead say, “Nobody; I myself. Farewell: Commend me to my kind lord.” What does this have to do with abusive relationships?” Jon read from the worksheet and then looked to Theon. “Ms. Lloyd is asking for your opinion, Theon. I can’t tell you what your opinion is.” He pushed the worksheet back against Theon’s chest.

Sansa had popped open her locker and had hung her coat up. She was now returning books to the top shelf and taking out the ones she would need.

“But _Othello_ is about abusive relationships,” Theon said. “I trust your opinion on that more than anyone’s.”

Sansa looked at Theon, her brow furrowed, confused, and Jon responded to that by shoving Theon hard in the chest and he looked angry.

“Shup up,” Jon then growled.

Sansa now looked at him, waiting for him to explain what Theon meant because Jon looked angry, yes, but more than that, it was something else. He looked…

Embarrassed.

Jon looked at her again and if she hadn’t been looking at him already, she would have completely missed it but she was certain that was what it was. Whatever Theon meant, it embarrassed Jon. But what had Theon meant? When it came to abusive relationships, he went to Jon for his opinion? What could that mean that would make Jon both angry and embarrassed and both of those things, he was trying to hide from her?

“Ready?” Jon asked, now smiling and it was as if the past minute hadn’t happened at all.

Sansa looked at him for another moment before she nodded and closed her locker. “Ready.”

Jon took her hand again and Theon walked with them down the hallway, Theon reading the next question on his worksheet to Jon.

Sansa wondered – if she asked Robb about this, whatever _this_ was, would he know and would he tell her?

…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much!!
> 
> (And "It Makes No Difference" sung live by Rick Danko is one of my favorite live performances *ever*.)


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